Today we celebrate the feast of St. Vincent de Paul, a French priest who lived from the late 16th century into the 17th century. He is best known for his extensive work among the poor for which he established two religious congregations: the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) and the Daughters of Charity with the help of St. Louise de Marillac. He was able to carry out many works of charity for the spiritual and physical relief of the poor and sick by organizing the collection of funds from the wealthy women of Paris. He initiated missionary projects, founded several hospitals, financially assisted victims of war, and ransomed over 1200 slaves from North Africa. At the time, laxity, abuse, and ignorance was prevalent among the clergy. St. Vincent conducted retreats for the clergy as a way of reforming them and instructing them in the ways of Christ, the High Priest and the Good Shepherd.
St. Vincent was not only a well-beloved man in his own time but continues to inspire people today by his example of charity and compassion towards the poor. However, there is a detail about his personality that is very interesting and perhaps even more endearing than any of the good works he has done. Something about the Saint that is largely unknown is that he had an irascible temper and could easily be prone to anger. In the stories of the Saints, we tend to whitewash them and make them appear as paragons of virtue and holiness, yet their story is often more complex than that. We regard these holy people as saints nowadays, and rightly so, yet if you were to ask St. Vincent while he was still living on this earth if he were a saint, he would not only tell you that he is a sinner, but that he is the worst of sinners. This is a common theme among many of the saints, including the patron and spiritual father of the Franciscans, St. Francis of Assisi. G.K. Chesterton has once commented that the difference between a saint and a sinner is not that the saint has not sinned; rather that the saint knows that they are a sinner.
If we want to really know what a saint is like, we can ask those who were closest to him, who knew him best, namely, his friends. Regarding St. Vincent, his friends say that he was “by nature of a bilious temperament and very subject to anger.” For anyone who does not know what “bilious” means, it is related to the word “bile.” We sometimes describe a very angry person as spewing “bile” when they lose their temper. This is how the Saint’s friends have described him. Obviously, he had a serious issue that needed to be controlled. Yet, St. Vincent is renowned for being tender, affectionate, and incredibly sensitive to the needs of others. How can this be? How can a man with such an irascible temper behave in such a gentle way? St. Vincent himself admits to his problematic temperament and he gives all the credit for controlling his temper to the grace of God. Without the grace of God, he says that he would be “hard and repellent, rough and crabbed” and that he would experience what he calls “black and boiling moods.” It is the grace of God that sustains him and enables him to act according to the mind and heart of Christ rather than according to his own bad temper.
This is an important point for all of us to remember especially as we engage in our own apostolic works and act as missionary disciples in the world. For one thing, the saints are painfully aware of their own weaknesses, their sinfulness, and their tendency towards doing what is wrong. They fully acknowledge who they truly are before God and do not pretend to be better than others. Sometimes we Christians seem to think that we must be perfect to serve God and do His will, yet this is an unrealistic expectation for ourselves and for others. If we have this mindset that we must be perfect, what often happens is that we pretend to be perfect, and thus undermine the work of God’s grace in our lives. It is better for us to be honest with ourselves and own up to our imperfections, weaknesses, and sins – if not to others, at least to ourselves. If we acknowledge our sinfulness and avoid pretending to be saints, then the grace of God can work through us freely. We can truly say with St. Vincent that it is not our own efforts alone that further God’s will, but the grace of God working in and through us. We will also realize that all of us are works in progress, since none of us can claim perfection for ourselves. St. Vincent shows us the amount of good that can be accomplished if we simply humble ourselves and submit ourselves to the working of God’s grace in our own lives. This is how we can truly bear witness to the power of God’s love for the world, when they see imperfect people exhibiting such love through their words and their actions.
– Fr. Matthew Mary, MFVA