By Fr Konrad Loewenstein, FSSP
Dowry, FSSP Periodical
N. 41, Spring 2019
1. Its Nature
Each
of us has a particular temperament which encompasses our whole manner of
feeling, judging, sympathizing, willing, and acting. This temperament is to be
perfected in each one of us by the practice of the Christian virtues. What can
impede this work of perfection, and even bring each of us to our eternal ruin,
is what is known as "the Predominant Fault".
Fr.
Garrigou-Lagrange OP describes it as "our domestic enemy dwelling in our
interior... at times it is like a crack in a wall that seems to be solid but is
not so: like a crevice, imperceptible at times but deep, in the beautiful
facade of a building, which a vigorous jolt may shake to the foundations."
Like a crack, we may notice our predominant fault, but think that it is just on
the surface, and does not go deep; or we may have seen it in the past but just
painted it over and now we do not see it any more. Prudence dictates that, if
we see a crack in a wall, we examine it and see whether it does in fact go
deeper: perhaps there is a structural problem which threatens the whole
edifice.
Some
examples of the predominant fault are moral weakness, sloth, gluttony,
sensuality, irascibility, and pride. Our predominant fault can inform and
colour our entire temperament, and compromise our predominant virtue which is,
to quote Fr Garrigou-Lagrange again, "a happy inclination of our
nature" which should develop and increase by Grace. This predominant
virtue should itself determine our temperament.
Take
the example of a person who has a temperament which is passive, patient,
docile, and resigned, whose predominant fault is moral weakness, whose
predominant virtue is gentleness. If his predominant fault gains the
ascendancy, he will become prey to human respect, moral cowardice, unreflective
conformity to evil conventions and fashions, prey to excessive indulgence, and
even complete loss of energy. He is no longer gentle but simply weak, although
he may, with every-one else as well, regard himself as gentle, meek, good, and
kind. His gentleness has been crushed, suppressed, and destroyed by moral weakness.
Similarly,
some-one with a temperament which is strong may have as his predominant virtue,
fortitude in confronting injustice, but as his predominant vice, anger and
irascibility. The danger for this person is that he give free rein to his
irascibility, so that his fortitude degenerates into unreasonable violence in
words, deeds and thoughts, which does untold harm to others, but above all to
himself.
What
is essential is that we first recognise our predominant fault, and then combat
it. If we discover moral weakness in ourselves, we must fight it by constantly
asking God to make us strong, and doing our best to face up to our duties and
responsibilities, and all the unpleasant challenges which life throws up
continually, even if there is no-one observing us, to reprimand us for being
remiss or disengaged.
If
we reflect, by contrast, that we are irascible, we must work on ourselves with
the Grace of God and submit our anger to rigorous control, and thereby learn
gentleness and docility, even if (as in the cases of St. Ignatius Loyola and
St. Francis de Sales) this may involve a labour of many years.
But
if we are in this world to perfect ourselves, is this not an important work to
do? – at least as important as a conscientious accomplishment of the duties of
our state in life, as our daily occupations, and those works of Charity in
which we may be trying to help our neighbour. Must we not love ourselves as our
neighbour? and is not the true love of self the moral perfection of the self ?
If our motives in all that we do are flawed by pride for example, then all that
we do will be flawed; if we are weak, then we forgo many good actions which
would tend in their turn to have many good consequences; if, again, we are too
forceful and irascible, we bring about, in the words of the same Fr.
Garrigou-Lagrange, every kind of disorder; if we are critical of others and
harbour and cultivate antipathies, then we are permanently contravening Our
Lord's commandment to love our neighbour.
As
time passes, the predominant fault becomes a habit, and informs and colours our
whole temperament, so that it becomes natural for us to feel, judge, think, and
act under its influence, and it becomes hard for us to discern the presence of
this fault because it has taken us over. Or if we do discern it, it will be
hard for us to admit it, especially if we are proud. And if we both discern and
admit the existence of this crack in the wall, we will not want to examine it,
if we are morally weak, or if we fear conversion and fear to change thereby our
entire lives.
Meanwhile
the devil enters in with his wiles. He knows our fault. He has been working
with it all our lives. He himself has painted or plastered over the crack, or
helped us do so. He augments our blindness in not seeing it, our pride in not
admitting it, our fear of rebuilding the whole house, if rebuild it we must.
2. How to Discover the Fault
We
have said that our predominant fault can inform and colour our entire
temperament: the way that we feel, judge, sympathise, will, and act. Were we to
find it, to find it out, we could gradually change our temperament for the
better: to become better people; more loving towards God and neighbour; more at
peace; more filled with the light of Grace; more happy; more diffusive of God's
light in this world and in the next.
It
would be a great Grace, says Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, to meet a saint who could
say to us: "This is your predominant fault; this is your predominant
virtue." With this virtue you are to conquer the fault, and you are to
inform and colour all you do, think, and say: your feelings, your desires, your
whole view of life. This virtue is, as it were, the vehicle in which you are to
advance through this world with generosity and single-mindedness on the path of
union with God.
It
would be a Grace indeed to find such a saint, but otherwise how are we to
discover our predominant fault? At the beginning of the spiritual life, at the
time, for example, of our conversion, it is relatively easy to discover it. But
as time passes, we become used to it and we judge all things in its light. It
gains dominion over the soul, and, descending deeper into our very being,
presents itself as part of our very selves. We have got used to it: indeed we
identify ourselves with it, we can't stand back from it. When it takes root in
us, says our learned and wise theologian, it offers a particular repugnance to
being unmasked and fought, because it wishes to reign in us and over us: it
hides itself, it puts on the appearance of virtue.
Weakness
clothes itself in the poor apparel of humility; pride in that of magnanimity;
anger in the apparel of justice and righteous indignation. Man, the master of
self-deceit, ends up by priding himself on the very defect which is his worst
enemy, as though it were a virtue. If our neighbour accuses us of this very
fault, we reply with complete conviction: "My dear friend, I may have many
defects, but I assure you that this is not one of them". Even if our
spiritual director mentions it, we shake our head – excuses come promptly to
our mind, for the predominant fault easily excites our passions. It commands
them as a master and they obey it instantly. Its fine appearance and its power
drive us in the direction of impenitence. We see a remarkable instance in the case
of Judas the traitor, pessimus mercator:
the most terrible merchant. Thrift leads to avarice, avarice to treachery, and
treachery to impenitence.
The
enemy of our soul, meanwhile, who knows this fault, makes use of it to stir up
trouble in and around us: to stir up strife, commotion, uproar, and
unpleasantness: storms in our soul, storms in our encounters with others. In
the citadel of the interior life, the predominant fault is the weak spot
undefended by the virtues. Here it reigns as an enemy within the gates:
concealed, disguised, and potent. The devil knows this fault, this enemy, and
knows precisely where he is located. He works with him to destroy the citadel.
If we ourselves do not know him, then we cannot fight him. If we cannot fight
him, we have no true interior life and will make but little progress in this
world.
How
then do we find him? First by prayer: "My God, what makes me resist Thy
Divine Grace? Give me the strength to submit to it. Free me from my bonds,
however painful that may be." Second, we examine our soul with merciless
realism: What is the subject of my ordinary preoccupations in the morning when
I awake, and when I am alone? Where do my thoughts and desires spontaneously
fly? What is the ordinary cause of my sadness and of my joy? What is the
general motivation of my actions and my sins? the nature of my temptations, the
cause of my resistance to Grace? – particularly when it draws me away from my
prayers or distracts me in them. Thirdly, what do other people criticise in me?
my spiritual director, if I have one ? my family, those I live with, those who
know me the best? Fourthly, how has the Holy Spirit inspired me in moments of
true fervour? What does He ask me to sacrifice for love of Him?If we adopt
these measures with sincerity and constancy of spirit we will come face to face
with this interior enemy which enslaves us. Our Lord says in St. John's Gospel
(8.34): "Whosoever committed sin is the servant of sin."
St
James and St John wished to call down fire from heaven on a city that refused
to receive them. But the Lord rebuked these "Sons of Thunder"
(Boanerges, as He called them), saying: "Ye know not of what spirit ye are.
The Son of Man came not to destroy, but to save." (St Luke 9:55). But
already at the Last Supper we see St John content only to rest his head on the
Divine Heart of the Saviour, and at the end of his life he did little else, we
are told, than to repeat constantly "My little children, love one
another." He had lost nothing of
his ardour or thirst for justice, but it had become spiritualised and elevated
by an extraordinary gentleness.
3. How to Conquer the Predominant Fault
When,
with the grace of God, we have discovered our predominant fault, we must make
the firm resolve to overcome it. To do so, we need a true and stable fervour of
the will, or a "promptness of the will in the service of God", which,
according to St Thomas, is the essence of true devotion.
Now
there are three principal means to overcome the predominant fault and they are:
1) prayer; 2) examination of conscience; and 3) a sanction.
1)
Prayer: Once God has answered my prayer to show
me what the predominant fault is, I should be assiduous and fervent in
beseeching His help to overcome it. If I am weak, I pray “O God my Strength!
Give me strength!" If I am irascible: "O God my Patience! Give me
patience! “If I am sensual; "My God and my all!" .....and so on. The
saints have prayed in the following ways: St. Louis Bertrand: "Lord, here
burn! here cut! here dry up all that hinders me from coming to Thee, that Thou
mayest spare me in eternity." St Nicholas of Flue: “My Lord and my God!
Take everything from me that hinders me from Thee! My Lord and my God! Give
everything to me that will bring me to Thee! My Lord and my God! Take me from
me and give me wholly to Thee."
2)
Examination of conscience: It is very useful to make a particular
examination of conscience in the field of my predominant fault every evening:
not just a general examination which is useful for every-one as part of their
night prayers: to appraise their spiritual life in general; but a concentrated
look at that particular weakness which has been the cause of my undoing so many
times in the past.
St
Ignatius of Loyola considers it very appropriate for beginners to write down
each week the number of times they have yielded to that predominant fault which
seeks to reign in them like a tyrant. Fr Garrigou-Lagrange remarks: "It is
easier to laugh at this matter fruitlessly, than to apply it fruitfully."
If we keep track of the money we spend and receive, why should we not keep a
track of what we lose and gain in the spiritual field, which are losses and
gains for Eternity?
3)
The Sanction: It is also very useful to impose a
sanction or a penance on ourself each time we notice that we have fallen into
this fault. The penance may take the form of a particular prayer, a moment of
silence, or an exterior or interior mortification. This helps us to be more
circumspect for the future, and makes reparation for the fault and satisfaction
for the penalty owing to it. In this way many people have cured themselves, for
example of blasphemy or of cursing, by obliging themselves to give alms each
time they fall. In the arduous combat against the predominant fault we must
take courage. We may be tempted to pusillanimity, particularly by the devil: to
think that we will never be able to eradicate it, never be able to master
ourselves. But we should not make peace with our faults, otherwise we will be
abandoning the interior life altogether, and our one goal in this life which is
perfection. God has commanded us to be perfect, so it must be possible, that is
to say with His Grace. The Council of Trent declares with St Augustine:
"God never commands the impossible, but, in giving us His precepts, He
commands us to do what we can, and ask for the Grace to do what we
cannot."
The
other temptation to pusillanimity comes from comparing ourselves with the
canonised saints. We resignedly think that this struggle against our defects is
suitable only for them, so that they might reach the highest regions of
spirituality and sanctity which are not for us, but reserved for them alone.
And yet as we have said, did Our Lord not command us to be perfect: to love Him
with all our hearts, soul, strength, and mind, and our neighbour as ourself?
This, then, is the task of every-one, even if our love may never be as
remarkable as that of the canonised saints with all the extraordinary talents
and gifts that they received.
Before
conquering the predominant fault, our virtues are more like good inclinations
than true and solid virtues that have taken root in us. When, with God's help,
we have overcome it, the virtues become firm and strong in the nourishing rays
of Charity. Charity, the love of God and of souls, comes to reign in our souls
through our predominant virtue. It transforms our temperament, making us more
truly ourselves: ourselves without our defects, ourselves in Charity, in God.
Peace
will enter the soul, and the interior joy that it brings with it, because peace
is the tranquillity of order which we have re-established in our souls by our
mortification, that is, by our struggle against our own evil.
We
become open to God like a flower opening to the sun: no longer referring all
things to ourselves, as we did when the predominant fault reigned, but
referring all things to Him: thinking always of Him, living always for Him, and
leading back to Him all those with whom we come into contact. God has answered
our prayer to take us from ourselves and make us wholly His, whereby we have
lost nothing except for our evil, and we have gained our true self, our true
being in Him. Thanks be to God!
