Upon our Good Name

February 5, 2022 • 2 min

From The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales, page 161
By His friend, Jean Pierre Camus, Bishop of Belley

UPON OUR GOOD NAME.

It is hardly likely that Blessed Francis could have been ambitious of the empty honours attached to an office at court since he did not even trouble himself to keep up his own reputation, except in as far as it might serve to advance the glory of God, which was not only the great but the one passion of his heart.

When a very serious accusation against him was carried to the court, he tells us:

I remained humble and silent, not even saying what I might have said in my defence, but contenting myself with bearing my suffering in my heart. The effect of this patience has been to kindle in my soul a more ardent love of God, and also to light up the fire of meditation. I said to God: Thou art my Protector, and my Refuge in this tribulation, it is for Thee to deliver me out of it. O God of truth, redeem me from the calumny of men!

He wrote as follows on the same subject to a holy soul who was far more keenly interested in what concerned him than in what affected herself:

After all, Providence knows the exact amount of reputation which is necessary to me, in order that I may rightly discharge the duties of the service to which I have been called, and I desire neither more nor less than it pleases that good Providence to let me have.