His Victory Over the Passions of Love and Anger
Blessed Francis candidly owned that the two passions which it cost him the most to conquer were “love of creatures and anger.” The former overcame by skill, the latter by violence, or as he himself was wont to say, “by taking hold of his heart with both hands.”
The strategy by which he conquered love of creatures was this. He gave his affections an altogether new object to feed upon and to live for, an object absolutely pure and holy, the Creator. The soul, we know, cannot live without love, therefore all depends on providing it with an object worthy of its love. Our will is like our love. “We become earthly,” says St. Augustine, “if we love the earth, but heavenly if we love heaven. Nay more, if we love God, we actually, by participation, become godlike. Osee, speaking of idolaters, says: They became abominable as those things were which they loved”.1 All our Saint’s writings breathe love, but a love so holy, pure, and beautiful as to justify itself in every expression of it:—Pure words … justified in themselves … sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.
As regards the passion of anger, which was very strong in him, he fought against it, face to face, with such persevering force and success that meekness and gentleness are considered his chief characteristics.
Notes
1 Osee ix. 10.