Page 39 - FLIPBOOK - Life of Saint Gerard Majella - Vassall-Phillips

LIFE OF SAINT GERARD MAJELLA

the time to come. However, the poor man was not to be stayed.
When next morning he found that his leg was perfectly healed, he
proclaimed his wonderful cure to all he met, so that the whole town
soon rang with the news.
It was not so long after entering the Congregation that Brother
Gerard, though Sacristan at the time, was directed to see to the wants
of four young clerics who were making their Retreat in the house in
preparation for ordination. In the discharge of this duty he went one
day to the strangers' refectory to prepare the table for dinner. Now,
in this refectory, hung a picture of Our Lord represented as the Ecce
Homo. The moment that Gerard's eyes met those of his Divine
Master, they were immovably fixed; his arms became extended; his
body was motionless as a corpse. He remained, as though lifeless, in
the position in which he had been overcome by the visitation of God,
a fork in one hand, a napkin in the other. Soon a second Lay-brother
appeared on the scene. Noticing that the table was not yet laid, and
that Gerard did not stir, he commenced to call him, but in vain.
There was no answer, no sign of life. He was then naturally
somewhat alarmed, and called some other Brothers to the spot. They
all likewise began to try and awaken Gerard. All was to no purpose.
At last the Father Rector was summoned. He shook the Servant of
God by the arm, and gave him an “Obedience” to come to himself.
In his ecstasies, obedience was the only force that could recall him
to this earth. So soon as obedience spoke, the ecstasy always ceased.
This is the infallible sign of the good spirit, the one test by which the
gift of God may be discerned from its diabolic counterfeit. On this
occasion, in order to preserve Gerard in deep humility, and to guard
him with the greatest security against all danger of delusion, the
Father Rector gave the holy Brother a sharp rebuke, and told him to
get to his work at once.
Saint Gerard, dumbfounded at being thus discovered, whilst in the
unrestrained enjoyment of the intimacies of Heaven, accepted the
reproof with joy. Blame he always looked upon as his due. In his own
sight he was not worthy to be allowed to speak to God in lowly
prayer, still less to be rapt in ecstatic contemplation. This he never
coveted or sought in any way. But it would have been entirely beyond
his power to withstand either in body or soul the imperious
operations of the Holy Spirit of God. He could but leave himself as a
passive instrument in his Creator's Hands.

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