Because of limited access to the Net and because I want to
pass this magnificent book on to friend before I move in two weeks, I am aware
of the inadequacies regarding the unpacking of Cardinal Manning’s insights.
Moving into the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which I did in
the last post, one sees in Manning a deep, deep spirituality, that of a saint.
Let me share a few posts more on the book we have been
following together.
On the fruits, as I noted briefly in the last post, some of
these pertain to us and our holiness more directly than others.
Modesty, which keeps us temperate and moderate, helps us to
do more than merely what is lawful. We move into humility through modesty.
Continence, as Manning notes, “.. mean most especially the repressing of the
passions,” and again, he points out that such regulation keeps us moderate and
disciplined.
“Chastity,” the Cardinal writes, “is the transparent purity
of the soul and the custody of the senses, because they are the avenues of the
soul by which sin enters.”
Wise words….
Manning moves to the ideal of the sweetness which comes from
love the love of God and the love of neighbor. And, Who is our great example
but, Christ Himself.
Manning tells us of his own love for the Sacred Heart
through these words.
“His hands were always exerting the promptings of His Sacred
Heart. And His Sacred Heart He bequeathed to His Church, which is His Mystical
Body. The vibration and the pulsation of that Heart of love are felt through
Christendom.”
The work of good Catholics contains the working of the
Sacred Heart.
“The Sacred Heart of the Incarnate Son of God cast fire upon
the earth. And the Christian world kindled and broke forth into all works of
charity.”
We all, notes Manning, as baptized Catholics, have a
‘facility of dong right” but this comes from and in the Heart of Christ. The
active perfection which is the working of the fruits in the world comes from
the heart.
The fruits are “…the acts, internal and external, of the
love of God and of our neighbour.”
The fruits point to active perfection as these are all acts.
But, Manning reminds us, as do all the saints, perfection is not merely found
through actions but through passivity. And in the passivity of the acceptance
of suffering, perfection becomes sublime.
“Obedience is perfected in patience.”
“Jesus revealed the perfection of the Sacred Heart always
and everywhere, but no-where and at no time, as in the three hours of agony on
the Cross. There His deified will was crucified—there His heart and mind were
conformed to God by the last conformity of self-oblation and of suffering unto
death.”
Manning sums up-“The active perfection is the perfection of
the fruits of the Holy Ghost; the passive is the perfection of the Beatitudes”.
To be continued…