After being greatly insulted by a Knight of Malta for not giving a benefice to one of his
servants, “the bishop‟s brother …asked him how it was he had not lost his temper, and the Saint
confessed that „at the time and many other times he was seething with anger like water in a pot
boiling over the fire but that by the grace of God, even if the violent efforts to resist such passion
endangered his life…he would not let himself go.‟”12
On one occasion, he says he was “seething with anger” inside
and on several other occasions he was afraid of losing in fifteen minutes what it took him years
to acquire. He admitted to Camus that the two passions that gave him the greatest difficulty were
love and anger. “With regard to the passion of anger to which he was inclined, he fought it head
on and with such strength and courage, or, to state it better, with such effort and constancy that
this appeared visibly at his death. When they opened up his body, some stones were found in his
gall bladder.”17
The doctors, Camus tells us, explained the presence of these little stones as
resulting from the very vehement efforts he made to control this passion. Then Camus makes
this fanciful comment, becoming almost rhapsodic: “O stones from David‟s bread bag, how
many giants, that is, impetuous assaults of anger, have you felled? O stones from which run
water, oil and honey, and which demonstrate the great power of grace over nature, the grace that
sometimes changes stones into honey and sometimes also honey into stone.”18
This rather baroque comparison with its allusions to two noteworthy incidents of the OT
–David felling Goliath, water and honey coming from the rock as the Israelites wandered in the
desert–is instructive for our purposes. Miel or honey signified for both the saint and Camus
gentleness or sweetness. This calls to mind the very well-known saying attributed to the saint but
found only in Camus: “"Always be as indulgent as you can, never forgetting that one can catch
more flies with a spoonful of honey than with a hundred barrels of vinegar.”19
Now in Camus‟
mind, not only can hard and difficult situations and events signified by the stones be softened by
gentleness, but gentleness itself through grace can also become as hard or as stern as stone. This
is an interesting take on the way one of the Francis‟ closest friends, who greatly admired the
saint‟s extraordinary gentleness, saw occasions where sternness or firmness might be called for
by God‟s grace. As we will see below, Camus personally experienced the turning of “honey into
stone.”
.....
So Francis was apparently hot-blooded by nature and throughout his lifetime. As late as
1619, “he admitted to a friend: „I very nearly let go of my anger, and intentionally I was obliged
to grip my anger by the scruff of the neck‟ and that he had to take the reins in both hands to hold
it back.‟…. „However, much I have been in the right,‟ he confessed, I have never shown anger
without discovering afterwards that I would have done better by not showing it‟ So he had shown
anger!”20
One must use a virtue to combat a vice. Use the opposite virtue to combat a vice. So, if you are angry, emphasize meekness, gentleness.
It is true that nothing has angered me for a longtime like the report
that I received from you regarding the indignity committed
between this dishonest young man and this poor girl. I owe special
honor and respect to those dear to you and to Madame, our
Président, for many reasons. So, if it were possible, I would
exchange this misfortune for a painful wound in my body to
relieve this dear sister of the excessive sorrow, which I now see in
her soul. If this vicious young man had desired to mitigate this
misfortune by marriage, which I did not fail to urge him to do as
my duty required, I would have detained him longer, despite my
repugnance, to be of some help. But when I heard the offensive
words with which he defended himself, and the invectives he used
to express his shameful feelings for this young woman, I threw him
out, even though I saw that he was without any resources, without
drive and without judgment. It would be impossible to get a dowry
or anything else from him. Otherwise I would have forced myself
to overcome my feelings, and kept on talking to him until we had
come to a conclusion, although it would have been disagreeable for
me.28
More here.
Much more...
