The Upright of Heart

[Traudel]

The Upright of Heart

"Do you know who the upright of heart are? They are those who wish
what God wishes. Therefore, do not try to twist God's will to you own
but correct your will to that of God. The will of God is a rule of
conduct. By it you have the means of being converted and of correcting
your evil ways."
--St. Augustine--(excerpt from Commentary on Psalm 93,18)

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April 11th - St. Stanislaus Bishop of Cracow, Martyr

(1030-1079)
Saint Stanislaus was born in answer to prayer, when his parents were
advanced in age. Out of gratitude they educated him for the Church.
When his parents died, he sold their vast properties and gave the
price to the poor. He was ordained, and being a holy priest, soon
afterwards became a Canon of the Cracow cathedral.

It was necessary to have recourse to the Pope to have him accept the
see of Cracow when it became vacant. But the bishop of Cracow’s
virtues increased with his dignity and obligations; Saint Stanislaus
donned a hair shirt, which he wore until he died. He had a list drawn
up of every poor person of the city, and gave orders to his servants
never to refuse anything to anyone.

Boleslaus II was at that time King of Poland; he was a prince of good
disposition, but spoilt by a long series of victories and successes.
After many acts of lust and cruelty, he outraged the whole kingdom by
carrying off the wife of one of his nobles. Against this public
scandal the chaste and gentle bishop alone raised his voice. Having
commended the matter to God, he went to the palace and openly rebuked
the king for his crime against God and his subjects, and threatened to
excommunicate him if he persisted in his sin. Boleslaus, with the
intention of irrevocably ruining the bishop’s good reputation,
suborned the nephews of a man named Paul who had recently died, to
swear that their uncle had never been paid for land which the bishop
had bought for the Church. Saint Stanislaus stood fearlessly before
the king’s tribunal, though all his frightened witnesses forsook him,
and guaranteed to bring the dead man to witness in his favor within
three days.

On the third day, after many prayers and tears, he raised the dead man
to life and led him in his grave-clothes before the king, where Paul
testified that the bishop had reimbursed him fully for the terrain he
had sold. He was then taken back to the grave, where he lay down and
again relapsed into his former state, before a large number of
witnesses.

Boleslaus for a while made a show of a better life. Soon, however, he
returned to the most scandalous excesses, and the bishop, finding all
remonstrance useless, pronounced the sentence of excommunication. In
defiance of the censure, on May 8, 1079, the king went to a chapel
where Saint Stanislaus was saying Mass and commanded three groups of
soldiers in succession to slay him at the altar. Each in turn came
out, saying he had been alarmed by a light from heaven. At this the
king himself rushed in and slew with his own hand the Saint at the
altar during the Holy Sacrifice.

The Pope placed the kingdom of Poland under interdict, excommunicated
the king and declared his royalty null and void. Boleslaus repented,
took refuge in another country for a time, then set out dressed as a
pilgrim for Rome. On the way he knocked on a monastery door to ask for
an alms, then decided to enter there anonymously, and was received. He
spent seven years there as a Benedictine lay brother, rendering every
humble service to the monks, patiently bearing rude treatment. Only on
his deathbed did he identify himself, taking out his royal ring which
he had concealed until then. He had spent hours praying before a
statue of Our Lady in the chapel, by which we may conclude that the
Mother of God had obtained for him the grace of conversion and a happy
death. His body remains in the church of the same monastery of
Ossiach.

Saint Stanislaus was canonized by Pope Innocent IV in 1253.

Reflection. The safest correction of vice is the Christian’s blameless
life. Yet there are times when silence would make us answerable for
the sins of others. At such times let us, in the name of God, rebuke
the offender without fear.


Saint Quote:
Stand fast, therefore, in this conduct and follow the example of the
Lord, 'firm and unchangeable in faith, lovers of the brotherhood,
loving each other, united in truth,' helping each other with the
mildness of the Lord, despising no man.
--Saint Polycarp of Smyrna, Letter to the Philippians

Bible Quote:
Let the people shew forth their wisdom, and the church declare their
praise. (Ecclesiasticus 44:15)


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Woe to him!

[B]ut there is another angle. St. Paul told the Corinthians ( 1 Cor
12:26): "If one member [of Christ] suffers, all the members suffer.
For we are naturally bound together, we form one body in Christ. An
old Rabbis said it well, Simeon ben Eleazar: "Someone has committed a
transgression. Woe to him! He has tipped the scale to the side of debt
for himself and for the world. For any sin of someone harms all. There
is no such a thing as a victimless crime.

So the Holiness of God wants the scales rebalanced because He loves
what is right in itself. He also wants it rebalanced because the
imbalance is harmful to all the other members of Christ. Finally, Pope
Paul VI, in Indulgentiarum doctrina, of January 9, 1967, sanctioned
the whole concept that the objective moral order is put out of balance
by sin, and must be rebalanced.

But one member can make up for another. So St. Paul said (Col 1:24):
"I fill up the things that are lacking to the tribulations of Christ
in my flesh for His body, which is the Church." Of course, Christ
lacked no suffering. His suffering was beyond telling. But the whole
Christ, that is, Christ with His members, can lack something. For we
are not saved as individuals. We are saved in as much as we are
members of Christ. And of course that means we must be like Him--like
Him in the matter of making rebalance for sin. St. Paul knew that many
members of Christ were not doing their part--but he, Paul, could make
up for them. So he did.