Austere Spirituality: St. Peter Canisius

St. Peter Canisius

Pope Benedict XVI recently spoke of St. Peter Canisius at his Wednesday Papal Audience (Zenit). He described the Saints spirituality as "austere" and described it as descending from his "penetrating knowledge of Scripture and of the Church fathers."

aus·tere/ôˈsti(ə)r/Adjective
1. Severe or strict in manner, attitude, or appearance: "an austere man with a puritanical outlook".
2. (of living conditions or a way of life) Having no comforts or luxuries; harsh or ascetic.

Terry, at Abbey Roads, brought my attention to these comments in one of his recent posts. He emphasized the fact that the Pope recognized St. Canisius' ability to defend the faith without descending into angry rhetoric. The Pope said:

Pope Benedict XVI

At a historical moment of strong confessional oppositions, he avoided -- this is something extraordinary -- the harshness and rhetoric of anger of the time in discussions among Christians, something rare as I said -- and he looked only to the presentation of the spiritual roots and to the revitalization of the faith in the Church. His vast and penetrating knowledge of sacred Scripture and of the fathers of the Church served this cause: the same knowledge that supported his personal relationship with God and the austere spirituality that he derived from modern devotion and Rhenish mysticism.

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austerity and fidelity

What caught my attention, was  the fact that he used the word austere to describe the Saint, while at the same time explaining that he avoided harshness and rhetoric of anger. These two descriptions seem incompatible with one another, and yet the Pope intertwines them into the description of a rather devout and pious Saint. On top of his austerity and fidelity, he also possessed a good amount of Theological knowledge, which in turn he wrote about – hence, he is a Doctor of the Church.

For me, as someone who views the defense of the faith in militaristic terms, I find it humbling to read that we must evangelize without harshness or rhetoric filled with anger. This is difficult for me at times, and often a fine line I must walk - but a line which must be heeded. As the Pope explains: "This is a characteristic of St. Peter Canisius: to be able to harmoniously combine fidelity to dogmatic principles with respect due to every person."

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Christ as our center

It is hard to know where the line is between harshness and austerity lies. We are supposed to be ardent defenders of the faith, and yet not descend into anger. One of the ways that the Saint kept his spiritual focus was through a combination of the Eucharist and Personal Prayer. If what we make as our center, truly is Christ, then little we do can be distant from him. The hard part many of us face is when we are doing things that we think are for or towards God, but in actuality are a selfish and personal endeavor.

As Terry said, "It is not beauty that will save the world, but love." So then we must make love our focus in life, but in an authentic way. Love of Christ, of Mass, of the Eucharist, and of the Blessed Virgin. It is in truth that we find love, and in love we find humility and peace; yet it is in Christ that we find all. Austerity and harshness are two sides of one coin, one of which lacks charity, and one that seeks truth. Spiritual warfare is real, the suffering of the Ecclesia Militans is also real. Yet, in our quest to defend the Kingdom of God, and to violently take heaven by force we must learn to do so with the humility and honor of a Knight. For it is when we learn to attack through love, that we will really win wars.

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