St. Francis de Sales taught that "one must feel indignation against evil and be determined not to compromise with it; nevertheless, one must live sweetly with one's neighbor "9. The Saint had to put into practice many times this spirit of understanding with people who were in error and of firmness in the face of error itself, since a good part of his life was dedicated to trying to bring many Calvinists back to Catholicism. And this at a time when the wounds of separation were particularly deep. When, at the Pope's suggestion, he went to visit a famous Calvinist thinker who was already in his eighties, the Saint began the conversation with kindness and cordiality, asking: "Can one be saved in the Catholic Church? After some time of reflection, the Calvinist answered in the affirmative. That opened a door that seemed definitively closed10.
Understanding, the fundamental virtue of living together and of the apostolate, inclines us to be kindly open to others; to look at them with a look of sympathy that leads us to accept with optimism the web of virtues and defects that exist in the life of every man and every woman. It is a look that reaches the depths of the heart and knows how to find the part of goodness that always exists in it
From understanding comes a community of feelings and life. On the contrary, negative judgments, often hasty and unjust, always give rise to distance and separation.
The Lord, who knows the deepest roots of human behavior, understands and forgives. When we understand others, it is possible to help them. The Samaritan woman, the good thief, the adulterous woman, Peter who renounced, Thomas the Apostle who did not believe..., and so many others in those three years of public life and throughout the centuries felt understood by the Lord and allowed the grace of God to penetrate their souls. A person who is understood opens his heart and lets himself be helped.
Near the end of his life, St. Francis wrote to the Pope about the mission entrusted to him: "When we arrived in this region, hardly a hundred Catholics could be found. Today, there are hardly a hundred heretics left "11. We ask him, on his feast day, to teach us to live this network of the virtues of living together, that we may know how to exercise them daily in the most common situations, and that they may be a firm help for the apostolate that, with God's grace, we must carry out. Lord, our God, you wanted the holy Bishop Francis de Sales to give himself generously to all for the salvation of mankind; grant us, following his example, to manifest the sweetness of your love in the service of our brothers and sisters
HCD