In this excerpt from The Battle of the Virtues and Vices, Pope St. Leo IX presents a dramatic contrast between Severity and Gentleness as they vie for the soul’s allegiance. While Severity urges harsh correction and discipline, Gentleness appeals to the example of Christ and St. Paul, showing that true strength lies in patient, loving instruction.
Severity Takes the Stage
Next, Severity appears on the scene. He is dressed in a very close-fitting suit and looks around with a disapproving frown. In his hand, he holds a rod, his favorite instrument of discipline, and seems impatient to put it to use. He says to the soul:
Listen to me, Soul, and think seriously. You are being altogether too mild, too lenient—a pushover! Do not these beasts, these fools, with whom you are compelled to interact daily, deserve a good thrashing more than mere gentle words? Their actions have merited harsh treatment, and it will teach them a good lesson they will not soon forget!
Gentleness Appears
Gentleness is also present at this time. She is sitting down, with a sweet and kindly expression on her face. In response to Severity’s exhortation, she then addresses the soul in soothing and dulcet tones:
O Soul, do not listen to this fallacious and harsh reasoning! Rather, call to mind the precepts of the apostle Saint Paul, and strive to follow them faithfully. For, speaking to his beloved disciple Timothy, he offers him the following sagacious counsel: “Do not correct a senior. Rather, I ask that you treat seniors as your fathers, and youths as your brothers, and older women as your mothers, and younger women as your sisters, displaying too all pure and chaste charity.”
Counsel from Saint Paul
This disposition of mildness is again articulated by Paul when he says, “A servant should not be contentious against his master but rather meek and gentle. We should be patient teachers, correcting those who go astray with modesty and charity.”
Truly, this vice of arrogant and judgmental severity is a greater and more pernicious evil when it flares up among subordinates than among superiors. And, indeed, it very often happens that when those in subordinate positions are corrected by their superiors, they are inflamed by resentment and defiance and immediately judge—and condemn—those whose role it is to lead them with unmitigated harshness and severity. Thus the good-willed correction offered to them by their caring superiors becomes for them an occasion of resentment and pride.
Alas, it is of precisely this type of situation that Scripture speaks when it warns us that “the one who corrects a mocker does himself an injury.”
On the other hand, when a person is able to accept a correction and constructive without bitterness and resentment, but even with equanimity and gratitude, it is a sure sign that wisdom and peace are flourishing in his heart. Thus is written: “If you correct a wise person, he will love you for it.”
O Soul, be gentle, even as Jesus was gentle; be meek as He was meek; and be patient, just as He was patient. For in doing this, you shall inherit not only the earth but the kingdom of heaven itself!
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This article is taken from a chapter in The Battle of the Virtues and Vices by Pope Saint Leo IX which is available from TAN Books.
