[B.] St. IGNATIUS of LOYOLA Presentation: The ... - St. Gaspar Bertoni

INTEGRE;SJ-OFM
= 28 =
1803: The Perfection of Necessity: You shall be perfect, and without spot before the
Lord your God [Dt 18:13] [cf. St. Thomas for whom perfection is that from which nothing is
lacking].
The Gloss adds here: ‘without criminal stain’. - Prosper writes in his “Concerning the
Contemplative Life”: the perfect are those who, willing what God wills, do not acquiesce in any
sins by which He is offended.
The Perfection of Supererogation: Mt 19:21: If you will be perfect, go sell what you
have and give to the poor… Jerome wrote to Heliodorus: The perfect servant of Christ has
nothing other than Christ: and if he/she have something other than Christ, such a person is not
perfect.
The Perfection of Ultimate Fullness: Pr 4:18: But the path of the just, as a shining
light, goes forward and increases even to perfect day. [this means: the resplendent clarity of
the divine vision]. St. Augustine in his Soliloquy, 1: The truly perfect virtue is that reason which
comes all the way to the end, where the blessed life is achieved.
1804: The first and the second perfection differ from the third much like merit differs from
reward. The Median perfection differs from the Lowest level much like a consul is distinguished
from a precept. All of these were in Blessed Francis, as appears from the reading of his Legend;
all precepts as well as counsels refer to the fulfillment and the observance of that charity.
1 Tm 1:5: Now the end of the commandment is charity, from a pure heart, and a
good conscience, and an unfeigned faith.
Decline from evil - accomplish good - and patiently endure adversities.
In these words the three-fold act of charity is insinuated: on account of the declining from
evil, there is the ‘pure heart’; on account of the following of good, there is the ‘good conscience’;
on account of the tolerance of adversities, there is the ‘unfeigned faith’. I.e., a faith that is not
fragile and weak, but one that is strong against adversities.
1805: This three-fold act of charity proceeds in two ways from the habit of the virtue: either
according to the law of precept and of necessary, or universal obligation; or, according to the law
of counsel and that of spontaneous and spiritual obligation: the second includes the first, and
adds to it in so far as the possibility of the wayfarer would admit. So it is that the second level is
said to be ‘perfect’ with regard to the first: however, with respect to the second, more advanced
level, the first is said to be imperfect.
1806: Ambrose writes in his Concerning the Offices: every office is either median or perfect;
which can be proven from the authority of the Scriptures. Mt 19:7: If you will enter life, keep the
commandments. V. 18: You shall do no murder, you shall not commit adultery. These are the
duties of the Median level, to which something is still lacking. V. 21: If you will to be perfect, go
sell what you have, and give to the poor, …and come, follow me . This is the Perfect duty, which
the Greeks call catorthoma, by which all are corrected which might leave some still lapsed. [The
saint treats these in De Off. 1, 35, f. - t. 2. 11 B ].
1807: Therefore, we are treating of evangelical perfection according to the common
acceptance, and we intend to speak of this Median Perfection.
From what has been said it might be gathered that evangelical perfection is the
conformity of the way-farer to Christ, through that habit of virtue by which evils are declined from
in a supererogatory manner, goods are accomplished, and adversities are suffered. In these
three, three levels of evangelical consist, which the Blessed Francis perfectly achieved. In the
mystery of this Christ consigned him with His own Sacred Stigmata as a testimony of his
consummate imitation and evangelical perfection.
And patience has a perfect work [Jas 1:4], in fortitude and perseverance unto the very
end of the cross and of life: And you are they who have continued with me, Lk 22:28: to the very