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JOHN MARY VIANNEY: A SACRIFICE OF LOVE
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| Eighteen hours a day hearing confessions? Self-denial, prayer, fasting; the sacrifice of all personal time and
material possessions in the service of others? Not even the devil himself could prevent Fr. John Mary Vianney, the celebrated Curé of Ars, from giving his life as a total sacrifice to God to win souls for heaven. Nothing else mattered to Vianney, except the age-old struggle between eternal life and eternal damnation which daily took place in his little French parish where he worked in the middle of the nineteenth century. According to The Remarkable Curé of Ars by Michel de Saint Pierre (Doubleday, NY, 1963), John Mary's beginnings in Dardilly, France, were ordinary enough. Born in l786, of peasant background, he worked the farm, having no need of education with his father's cows and sheep. The times were extraordinary, however, for the Vianney family lived during the terrifying French Revolution. Priests were persecuted, churches closed; the family would walk miles to attend a clandestine Mass. The homeless found shelter with the Vianneys, and young John did his part, searching out abandoned children and caring for them. As the years went by, the government regained some sanity. Life went on. John Mary's holiness increased and at l7, he told his mother, "If I were a priest, I would want to win many souls" (p. 21). Those thoughts of the young man took greater form and finally action. The unschooled John Vianney began his preparation for the seminary with Fr. Balley, a scholarly parish priest in Ecully. Soon the master could see God's hand in Vianney's soul. The student was humble, controlled; prayer and mortification were very much a part of his young life. But all of these excellent qualities were offset in the seminary by John Mary's poor memory and scholastic performance which caused him to be ridiculed and even slapped by much younger pupils for his slowness. He kept at his goal through the arduous years of his education and in spite of the fact his scholastic poverty blinded his professors to his great spirituality. But, at last, on August l3, 18l5, John Mary Vianney realized the desire of his soul and received the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The fact that it was with reservations (without the power to forgive sins) meant nothing. He was a priest at last! Ecully was Fr. Vianney's first assignment as assistant to Fr. Balley. Teaching the catechism, visiting and caring for the sick, seeing to the needs of the poor, prayer and mortification occupied the young curate. Soon the power to absolve sin was granted to him and the apostolate of the confessional added another dimension to Fr. Vianney's priestly life. And then came Ars. Ars: a tiny slice of a village nestled in a hollow, its clay buildings surrounding the church. About 240 souls lived there and John Mary Vianney was to be their priest. The parish church all too well reflected the state of the faithful in Ars: shabby and neglected, the church could not reflect the glory of God. So, too, the populace. Ars was a raucus place. Streets rang out with shouts and crude language. Drink and dance were popular pastimes and Sunday was just another workday in a week of seven, or a drinking and dancing day if no work was to be had. John Vianney knew what he had to do. The souls of his parishioners depended on him. The salvation of his own soul depended on what he did in his parish! He made visitations to his parishioners, talking with them first about homey things and then about their souls. He visited the sick, heard confessions; he preached, not in the fancy, boring rhetoric of the day but in simplicity and sincerity about the Faith he cherished. Above all, he prayed and sacrificed. "My God, grant me the conversion of my parish; I am willing to suffer everything You want as long as I live!" (p. 73). The straws of his bed were given up; a cold, boiled potato, watery, meatless broth, some milk might be his daily food allotment; many nights the light burned in the parish church as Fr. Vianney talked with his God. And in everything, Fr. Vianney was at the service of his parish. If there was a need, he would see to filling it, trusting God to provide. Slowly, Ars was "not Ars anymore" (p. ll2). The example of the little pastor was emulated. Prayer became a way of life, workers would sing hymns as they toiled, reception of the sacraments became important again. "Only on Judgment Day will the good that is being accomplished in souls here be known," Fr. Vianney once commented (p. ll3). The devil knew, however, and feared the good which Fr. Vianney was accomplishing. And for 35 years, Satan vented his wrath on the poor little Curé with diabolical manifestations. There were knocks and footsteps in the night. At first Fr. Vianney thought robbers had come, but when he saw that there were no footprints in the snow, he said, "I then had no further doubt but that it was the Devil who wanted to frighten me" (p. ll6). Thundering noise surrounded the rectory as though "bands of demons were holding their parliament outside" (p.120). Meat would appear in the food on abstinence days; coarse singing, animal noises and hard breathing became commonplace. Fr. Vianney was thrown out of his bed, tossed about in his confessional. His favorite picture of the Blessed Virgin was daily contaminated with dirt. One day, on his way to a neighboring village, Fr. Vianney said that "the air around him was filled with sinister glimmers of light;... the bushes seemed to be burning" (p.125). Anyone visiting the rectory witnessed these strange events. And if Fr. Vianney happened to be elsewhere, the infestation continued. Fr. Vianney remained unruffled by these incidents: "What God protects is well-protected" (p.126) - even years later when a fire abruptly started in his room, destroying his bed and curtains and some holy pictures. When the most disturbing ruckus would occur, Fr. Vianney knew a sinner had been moved to repentance and would soon enter the confessional. As the years went by, Ars became a place of pilgrimage with tens of thousands of visitors. Each day was the same, beginning at l a.m. for confessions, then Mass, a scanty breakfast, and more confessions. Catechism time came at ll a.m., followed by lunch, sick calls, and parish business. Several more hours in the confessional followed. In addition to the penance of the long hours in the confessional, Fr. Vianney suffered from physical ailments, including toothache, stomach pains, body sores, and a cough. To these he added a hairshirt and iron armbands with points. In private he also scourged himself with his discipline. This life of complete sacrifice was not without its blessings. Prophecy and the gift of knowing souls were readily apparent in Fr. Vianney's words. He exorcised demons. Cures were attributed to the holy priest. "The Good God who does not need anybody, uses me for these great works," Fr. Vianney said humbly (p. l48). One witness saw the Blessed Virgin with him. The unrelenting work in Ars had its effect on Fr. Vianney. He dreamed of rest but was never successful in leaving Ars. By his 73rd year, his cough was worse, his tired, fevered body would demand sleep even in the confessional. On July 30, he could no longer leave his bed to minister to his flock. Five days later, on August 4, 1859, John Mary Vianney's soul met the Good God for life everlasting. And God saw to it the good Curé remained a lesson to his fellowman. In l904, 45 years after his death, Fr. Vianney's body was exhumed as part of the beatification process. Although dried and darkened, the body was incorrupt. It remains so today and is enclosed in a reliquary in a basilica in Ars. John Vianney was canonized in 1925 and named the patron of parish priests (The Incorruptibles, Cruz, TAN Books, Rockford, l977, p. 272-275). John Vianney's closeness to God in prayer literally compelled him to what Pope John Paul II called a "heroic life" (Holy Thursday Letter to Priests, l987). Watching the "hour" in prayer continually decides matters of salvation, the Holy Father said. And he pointed out to his brother priests Vianney's priestly service in the confessional as a worthy example of pastoral care. Only God knows the good accomplished by John Vianney's example of priestly love. And only He knows what could be accomplished in the present day if such an example of love was relived. |