Thesis on Divine Slavery

[thesmellypocket 1859]

ON THE TRUE DEVOTION OF DIVINE SLAVERY.

 

Pius of Sutica.

 

Sancta Iuda, ora pro nobis!

 

I.A New Translation.

 

“Ecce lavo te. Et servos Dei iungis.”-Gospel 2:36.

 

A MORE ACCURATE interpretation of Gospel 2:36 may not be “And you join God’s servants” as in the authorised version, but “And you join God’s slaves.” Our word ‘servant’ derives from the Flexio ‘servus’, but derivation does not necessarily mean it is closer to the original meaning. In fact, one might say that the interpretation currently authorised by Holy Mother Church is a very sanitised one. Slavery justly evokes disgust in the stomachs of men, but we must say that to belong totally to men is very different than to belong entirely to God. God is beauty, wisdom and truth itself. He is all mercy. Therefore, there should be no stigma regarding this translation.

 

If servus were taken out of this context, and were we to be compiling a Flexio dictionary, undoubtedly slave would be the first definition given. 

 

God made us, and he cleanses us through Holy Baptism, as He cleansed Horen in this instance. He has full right to us, and do we not pray during the Pontifical Office “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof?” The ‘fullness’ surely includes us. Brothers, it is clear that slave is the more literal and accurate interpretation. The Author of Holy Scripture is none other than God Himself. Therefore, the Scriptures have profound layers of meaning that mean the Church must adhere to a scrupulously careful translation and interpretation of every single word.

 

Sin is a black form of slavery. Wrath, lust, inability to forgive, avarice and pride, all of these enslave a man to his passions and render him unable to attain to his true potential, that is, to allow God to fashion him into a man reborn in His grace. Let us therefore translate this rightly, cast off the unholy chains of sin and embrace the merciful yoke of our Creator.  This will be the basis for the devotion which I will here unfold, which I consider to be way of quick progress in the spiritual life: indeed, Divine Slavery is the finest means of divine union.

 

II.On the Differences Between Slavery and Servitude and Why Slavery is a Higher State of Divine Union.

 

“For He hath regarded the humility of his female slave…”-The Magnificat of St. Julia.

 

SLAVERY is a state of total belonging to another. It is the full right of disposing, life and death. Slaves can expect no recompense for their toilings, nor can they have anything to call their own. In the natural order of man, we rightly consider this state to be a terrible one, for it quickly leads to abuses of power. But what fear can we have that God will abuse His power? Not at all. 

 

Servants, on the other hand, merely work for a limited time, for a wage, and are free to leave. They can expect good treatment and have rights. They do not belong to their master; merely they are contracted to him. 

 

Here are reasons why the former is superior to the latter:

 

i)We humble ourselves and co-operate with God’s grace. By saying to God that we belong to Him entirely, and by praying that He take us over, we become vessels of Divine mercy in our lives. We quickly become steeped in His virtues, as described in the beautiful canticles. 

 

ii)Since “Deus Caritas Est”, or “God is Charity” as St. Jude wrote, the motto taken by many holy prelates of the Church, we cannot merely belong to Love on a temporary or mercenary basis. No, we must belong to Love entirely. We cannot practice virtue on one day of the week and vice on another, no, we are called to perfection. Therefore servitude is unbefitting, for it implies we are contracted labourers to Love, when we should be aiming to be the conquered Slaves of Love. 

 

iii)Precisely because it was practised by holy persons. Firstly, Exalted Horen as we have established. The second we will show is Saint Julia. And lastly, because he wrote extensively on this, Venerable Humbert the Slave of God. These holy examples we will next unfold. 

 

iv)The more we humble ourselves and abandon ourselves to Providence, the more God will exalt us. I will discuss this below in relation to Saint Julia. 

 

III.Divine Slavery Lived. It Consists Primarily in Interior Practices.

 

“...For I am God’s conquest: once His enemy, and how His loving slave. (Servus Dei.)”-Confessions 1.1.

 

Our three examples are:

 

EXALTED HOREN. Exalted Horen is the father of mankind, and we know from the Scrolls of His meekness and piety. (Gospel 1:40-41.) Since Horen is the spiritual Father of the Prophets as well as the actual Father of mankind (Gospel 2:71-77), he is our example in the spiritual life. No man has seen God at any time, and we know of His virtues through the cancticles, but as for how to live them, we must look to Horen first. As has been established in my new interpretation of Gospel 2:36, Horen practised this slavery in his life. This is how and why God exalted him and promised him the Skies, and gave to him the Prophetic office. For all the earthly strength of the brothers, they represent nothing more than wordlings. The true man of God has “no other ambition except to praise God” (Gospel 1:40) and therefore would rather be His lowest slave, than the most exalted wordly emperor. Divine slavery is more glorious than worldly rule. The true man of God abandons Himself totally to God’s mercy and makes co-operation with grace his only ambition, as Horen did.

 

SAINT JULIA. In the Magnificat, recited as part of the Pontifical Office and a most beloved prayer of the Church, Julia calls herself the “ancilla” of God. That is, handmaid. You will see above, however, that I rendered it “female slave.” For indeed, Ven. Humbert, who translated the Proverbs of Exalted Godfrey with utmost care, says in the footnotes that “slave” is a more accurate rendering of the word than “handmaid”, but that since “handmaid” had grown popular in devotional use, he chose to render it thus. If Exalted Horen is our exemplar in the practice of virtue, Our Lady comes a very close second. In her Magnificat, she talks of God lifting up the humble and shattering the proud. Since she lowers herself to be the lowest slave of God, God raises her to be Queen and Mother of the Church. IF there was any vindication of the divine slavery, it is this.

 

I will let the words of VEN. HUMBERT speak for themselves. “...For I am God’s conquest, once His enemy, and now His loving slave.” In Divine Slavery we see the chance for the repetent sinner like Humbert to cast themselves in the copious ocean of Divine mercy and seek perfection. Indeed, he wrote a most beautiful prayer: 

 

“You are the Lord: my Holy Father, my Tender God, my Great King, Shepherd, my Only Master, my Best Helper, my Most Beautiful and my Beloved, my Living Bread, my Priest Forever, my Leader to my Country, my True Light, my Holy Sweetness, my Straight Way, my Excellent Wisdom, my Pure Simplicity, my Peaceful Harmony, my Entire Protection, my Good Portion, my Everlasting Salvation.

Sweet Lord, why have I ever loved, why in my whole life have I ever desired anything except Thee, my God? Where was I when I was not in spirit with Thee? Now, from this time forth, do you, all my desires, grow hot, and flow out upon the Lord God: run... you have been tardy until now; hasten where you are going; seek Whom you are seeking. O, God  may he who loves Thee not be an anathema; may he who loves Thee not be filled with bitterness.

 

O, Sweetest God, may every good feeling that is fitted for Thy praise, love Thee delight in Thee, adore Thee! God of my heart, and my Portion, Christ Jesus, may my heart faint away in spirit, and mayst Thou be my Life within me! May the live coal of Thy Love grow hot within my spirit and break forth into a perfect fire; may it burn incessantly on the altar of my heart; may it glow in my innermost being; may it blaze in hidden recesses of my soul; and in the days of my consummation may I be found consummated with Thee!

 

Amen.”

 

Now in these examples it must be noted that their practice was primarily interior. Not entirely: they did exterior acts, of course. But Divine Slavery does not consist in exetreme penances. For the best penance we can give God is LOVE, for He is Love, and through what the Akritians call Agape, or we Caritas – Charity - we become like unto Him. There was once a promiscuous man who used to go out with various women of Sutica. I was at that time studying various philosophies, and coming closer to the realisation that I must convert to Canonism. Now this man asked me to teach him how to be good; I tried my best. But he fell into old ways, going out with another woman. The next time I saw him, he was volunteering for a missionary in charitable works. “My friend” He said to me “I have decided to go out with Agape.” From that moment on, he attained virtue after virtue. 

 

IV.In Consecration to a Saint.

 

What we say absolutely of God, we can say relatively of the Saints. Is it lawful for someone to practice this form of slavery toward a Saint? May a man justly call himself a slave of Exalted Horen, or Owyn, or Saints Julia, Publius, etc.? It seems to me that he can, in a relative sense, or rather, than he may belong to God through their intercession.

 

For the Saints are so conformed to God through grace, that to belong to a Saint is to belong to Him by an indirect route. Indeed, it may be, and in fact, is more humble to approach God through a mediator. So, for some, it may be more fruitful to consecrate himself to a Saint rather than directly. 

 

Does anyone have the audacity to suppose that the Saint would reserve any of the glory or honour for himself? No, rather, the slave of that Saint would be accompanied by the prayers of him, and belong perhaps even more perfectly to God. But I submit this to Holy Mother Church.

 

God love you,

 

Pius of Sutica.