Chapter VI — On the vocation of those to be initiated, and the signs by which it can be discerned

I. The vocation of which the discourse now is can be described as being an act of supernatural providence, by which God chooses these men rather than those, and prepares them with endowments consonant with the sacred offices to be performed. The priestly state is supernatural, for which no one is fit by his own industry and labour; and therefore a supernatural providence is necessary, which may direct and confer helps consonant with so great a state. Those whom God calls to this state, he prepares with opportune endowments.

II. The necessity of that divine vocation the holy Scriptures manifest. Christ the Lord, who was made the exemplar to be imitated by us, was foreordained a priest according to the order of Melchisedech, as is had in Psalm 109. He came not of himself, but sent by the Father, that he might be for us a Pontiff, says St. Paul, Hebrews 7, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Wherefore he himself cried out in the temple, teaching: I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true. John 7. He, being sent by his Father, called the Apostles to the same priesthood; he called unto him whom he would himself. Mark 3. When the Apostles had to substitute one who should fill the place of Judas, they implored from God signs by which the one to be elected might be manifested: Show whether of these two thou hast chosen. Acts 1. Those who dare, not being called, to occupy this dignity, are thus disapproved by Christ: Amen, amen I say to you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber. John 10. He subjoins in the same place: By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved. Lastly St. Paul, Hebrews 5, says: Neither doth any man take the honour to himself, but he that is called by God, as Aaron was. So Christ also did not glorify himself, that he might be made a high priest: but he that said unto him: Thou art my Son.

III. The things which hitherto have been said out of the holy Scriptures could be confirmed by the examples of the holy Fathers. The more they shone with holiness, the more strongly did they either refuse ordination or, being expressly called, gave assent. Innumerable examples could I adduce, which the brevity set before me does not suffer.

IV. The divine vocation is as it were the fount and root of the graces and gifts which confer strength equal to the sustaining. The vocation being taken away, the necessary safeguards are lacking; and it being posited, all things succeed prosperously. Those who, God not calling, but either the dignity of splendour alluring or the little gain of revenues impelling, receive sacred Orders, cannot please God. Would the services of servants be pleasing to their masters which were performed against their will? Let us hear Christ himself speaking, Matthew 15: Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Again John 15: Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he will take away. Those words are to be noted, in me. It is not enough to bear fruit. It must be seen whether they be in God: in me. Lastly Matthew 7: Many will say to me in that day: Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.

V. Who, meditating these oracles, O Christ Jesus, does not tremble in all his limbs? Who does not see how tremendous and fearful is the deliberation of choosing thy sheep, without imploring the mercy of God and the grace of vocation? What then, you will say, are so many priests, so many pastors to be reckoned, who, no prayer being sent before, no examination of vocation being made, undertook that state? Will they therefore sow in another's field, whence they cannot reap? Do they run in vain, since they are not sent by God? Ought they to forsake this state? If the state can be forsaken, as the government of souls, without doubt it must be laid down when grave signs occur that the vocation to such a state was lacking, and that the gifts of vocation are lacking. For the rest, the secret of the divine vocation lies hidden from us, and is open to God alone. Saul was called, Judas was called; both were disapproved. The beginnings of others' vocation appeared evil to men; but the pursuit was good, the outcome holy. Of Catholics few are chosen; many are called. No one nevertheless ought to despair of his own salvation. But all ought to busy themselves with pious prayers and laborious works, that they may make their own vocation certain and holy. No one can forsake his own state, from which he cannot recede without sin.

VI. Nor should you object that the doctrine given turns many away from the religious state: since I reply, Would that it were true, that it turned away very many of those who enter in troops not through the door, but otherwise, as thieves and robbers. For it is better (says the Fourth Lateran Council) chiefly in the ordination of priests, to have a few good than many bad. Here let those consider again who, that they may fill Churches, monasteries, convents, and colleges, under pretext of the necessity of propagating offspring and of filling their seats, admit indiscriminately the lame, the humpbacked, the blind, and the dissolute. Here the propagation is heavenly, spiritual, and divine. It ought to proceed from God, not from human industry.

VII. QUESTION I. What are the signs of a vocation to the religious and priestly state? ANSWER. Those are not called to sacred Orders whom defects of body and of mind render unfit for performing the sacred ministries. Defects of body are plain to all. Of defects of mind some are ambiguous, others probable, others almost certain. Of defects of mind some are as it were implanted by nature, and are called defects and vices of nature: as a fierce spirit, a savage or stern disposition, or a soft, flowing character unstable to every wind; a blunt, leaden, stupid talent, altogether inept for acquiring the necessary sciences. Others are moral and voluntary, as anger, pride, ambition, and vicious habits. Those who labour under vices of nature are not to be promoted to the sacred duties. Shall priests of a fierce disposition allure the flock? Shall pastors of leaden and blunt talent pour forth the divine eloquences upon the people? If they be of a soft and flowing character and an effeminate nature, they lack evangelical fortitude, by which they may repel ravening wolves and press down the proud. But at their sides, they say, sit fit ministers, by whose help they direct the flock. O men most wretched in their own ways! Are pastors therefore made for the state, and ministers for the doctrine? And the ministers lack the grace of vocation, and lack the abundance of heavenly gifts: since these have been intruded for the most part not by God calling, but by human artifice pandering. It is a most pernicious illusion to wish to compensate the ineptitude of a pastor by the skill of ministers.

VIII. Moral defects of mind, because voluntary, can be corrected, chiefly when the vocation is true. A different judgment is to be formed of these and of incurable vices of nature. For if a keen talent, an excellent disposition, fortitude of mind, and the other endowments of nature be present, crimes and vices can be amended. Let a prudent director prescribe to penitents an exercise of piety; let him scatter the seeds of virtues; and from the fruits he will gather whether the plant is to be transferred into the heavenly garden.

IX. The signs of a divine vocation in a youth to be promoted to sacred Orders are: 1. If the youth be torn away from the delights of the world and severed from the enticements of the world; 2. If he feel himself kindled not for a private life to be led with himself, but for service and the salvation of his neighbour, and for fulfilling the work of God; 3. If he be affected with a study of prayer, that by its help he may be able to explore the divine will: for prayer is a commerce with God, and joins the soul to him, and asks the necessary gifts; 4. An ardent desire of attaining sacred Orders. This sign nevertheless is frequently false, as proceeding from a cupidity of gaining bread, or of obtaining a dignity, not from a love of serving God. For very many seek the clerical state because they are incited to it by their parents, because they hope thence to unburden their family. Others, pressed by the want of family means, refuse to labour with their own hands, as the Apostle Paul did, to dig and to harrow; and they consider the clerical state as it were an art and profession by which without labour and sweat they can conveniently attain food and clothing. Wherefore the signs recounted are ambiguous, and it will be the part of a prudent director to detect, according to the diversity of circumstances, which is a true and which a painted vocation. But the matter has come to such a pitch of evils that very many, no counsel being sent before, assume a state out of their own inclination, and not all bishops are vigilant in exploring the vocation of those to be ordained.

X. QUESTION II. Is it lawful for clerics to seek ecclesiastical dignities and the government of souls? ANSWER. Those who seek the government of souls — namely the episcopate, a parish, and so forth — are either foolish or proud. St. Thomas turns over this question at large, II-II, q. 185, art. 1, where he distinguishes three things: 1. There is the office, which regards the worship of God and the utility of the neighbour; 2. There is the loftiness of grade, by force of which a pastor rules over subjects; 3. There are the revenues and the service of subjects. The desire of labouring and working in the vineyard of the Lord is good; but as it is borne toward dignities, honours, grades, and temporal emoluments, it is vain and ambitious. Very many say: I desire to avoid idleness, and to attain an occupation of labouring and working in the vineyard of the Lord. Under this mask iniquity lies to itself, and cupidity lurks, and ambition creeps. If a man desire the episcopate, he desireth a good work, says Paul: Jerome subjoins: a work, not a dignity; a labour, not delights, by which humility may decrease, not swell with loftiness. If these men truly wished to labour in the vineyard of the Church, is it not open to all? Let them visit the hospices and console the sick; let them go to the country districts and the mountains; let them instruct the rude, teach the ignorant, unteach the erring, succour the poor, preach the word of God. Let them go to the bishop and say: Behold me, send me. What? We wish to send, not to be sent; to command, not to obey; to be served, not to serve; to be exalted, not to exalt. This assuredly is the legitimate and genuine answer.

XI. What of those who play the courtier and solicit patrons, that they may procure for themselves a bishopric or a parish; who serve matrons themselves, that they may bind their lovers to intercede and to procure a grade and a dignity? These are the vilest bondmen of ambition, thieves and robbers, who, being unable to enter through the door, take care that ladders be applied to the windows, that they may be able to ascend, and study to be helped and raised up by any men and women whatsoever. They prate that in this age all things are so distributed that, unless human industry and offices and procurations be employed, all lie prostrate, and no one is promoted. I distinguish. That no one is promoted without offices and procurations: by man, I concede; by God, I deny. Tell me: do you wish to be promoted by man or by God? By God, you say. Why then do you prate that human industry is necessary? Is God ignorant of your endowments and your aptitude? Or if he shall have judged you fit, does he not dispose by his infallible providence that you be set over the Church to be governed? You press that God does not work miracles without necessity, and does not forbid but command human industry. Human industry indeed God requires in all those things which depend upon man, otherwise in those which he has reserved to himself. The vocation to the government of the Christian Church is the work of God alone. Do not the sacred canons themselves forbid offices and procurations of this kind? But why do we pour forth more words? Unless those who preside reject all those whom they shall know to prepare for themselves a way to grades and dignities of the Church by offices and ambition, our labour is in vain. Truth is of itself clear. It has need of execution, not of persuasion.