Excerpt: Men and Saints by Charles Peguy
GOD SPEAKS:
When
you love someone, you love him as he is.
I
alone am perfect.
It is
probably for that reason
That I
know what perfection is
And
that I demand less perfection of those poor people.
I know
how difficult it is.
And
how often, when they are struggling in their trials,
How
often do I wish and am I tempted to put my hand under their stomachs
In
order to hold them up with my big hand
Just
like a father teaching his son how to swim
In the
current of the river
And
who is divided between two ways of thinking.
For on
the one hand, if he holds him up all the time and if he holds him too much,
The
child will depend on this and will never learn how to swim.
But if
he doesn't hold him up just at the right moment
That
child is bound to swallow more water than is healthy for him.
In the
same way, when I teach them how to swim amid their trials
I too
am divided by two ways of thinking.
Because
if I am always holding them up, if I hold them up too often,
They
will never learn how to swim by themselves.
But if
I don't hold them up just at the right moment,
Perhaps
those poor children will swallow more water than is healthy for them.
Such
is the difficulty, and it is a great one.
And
such is the doubleness itself, the two faces of the problem.
On the
one hand, they must work out their salvation for themselves. That is the rule.
It
allows of no exception. Otherwise it would not be interesting. They would not
be men.
Now I
want them to be manly, to be men, and to win by themselves
Their
spurs of knighthood.
On the
other hand, they must not swallow more water than is healthy for them,
Having
made a dive into the ingratitude of sin.
Such
is the mystery of man's freedom, says God,
And
the mystery of my government towards him and towards his freedom.
If I
hold him up too much, he is no longer free
And if
I don't hold him up sufficiently, I am endangering his salvation.
Two
goods in a sense almost equally precious.
For
salvation is of infinite price.
But
what kind of salvation would a salvation be that was not free?
What
would you call it?
We
want that salvation to be acquired by himself,
Himself,
man. To be procured by himself.
To
come, in a sense, from himself. Such is the secret,
Such
is the mystery of man's freedom.
Such
is the price we set on man's freedom.
Because
I myself am free, says God, and I have created man in my own image and
likeness.
Such
is the mystery, such the secret, such the price
of all
freedom.
That
freedom of that creature is the most beautiful reflection in this world
Of the
Creator's freedom. That is why we are so attached to it,
And
set a proper price on it.
A
salvation that was not free, that was not, that did not come from a free man
could in no way be attractive to us. What would it amount to?
What
would it mean?
What
interest would such a salvation have to offer?
A
beatitude of slaves, a salvation of slaves, a slavish beatitude, how do you
expect me to interested in that kind of thing? Does one care to be loved by
slaves?
If it
were only a matter of proving my might, my might has no need of those slaves,
my might is well enough known, it is sufficiently known that I am the Almighty.
My
might is manifest enough in all matter and in all events.
My
might is manifest enough in the sands of the sea and in the stars of heaven.
It is
not questioned, it is known, it is manifest enough in inanimate creation.
It is
manifest enough in the government,
In the
very event that is man.
But in
my creation which is endued with life, says God, I wanted something more.
Infinitely
better. Infinitely more. For I wanted that freedom.
I
created that very freedom. There are several degrees to my throne.
When
you once have known what it is to be loved freely, submission no longer has any
taste.
All
the prostrations in the world
Are
not worth the beautiful upright attitude of a free man as he kneels. All the
submission, all the dejection in the world
Are
not equal in value to the soaring up point,
The
beautiful straight soaring up of one single invocation
from a
love that is free.
