La Noblesse oblige

Christ makes it possible for us to render him homage and returns.

Today, the Feast of St. Ambrose, can be the beginning of a new life for us, if we embrace the ancient principle that comes to us through the French. La noblesse oblige. Nobility obliges.

St. Ambrose was a noble man, born of an aristocratic family. Professing the Nicene Faith — which we profess in Sunday’s creed — he avoided baptism for the longest time. This was somewhat characteristic of his age. What was not characteristic was the charity he showed to the Arians, who were quite numerous at the time. When the Bishop of Milan, Auxentius, who was Arian, died, he was acclaimed bishop by acclamation of the people — precisely because of that charity. He did not want the office. He went on to accept it, receiving baptism, confirmed, ordained, and consecrated bishop within a week’s time, to assume the bishopric of Milan.

He did what he did not want to do, because it was asked of him and because he saw it was God’s will. His nobility obliged him to accept the will of the people and the will of the Pope as the will of God, and so he did accept it.

One might say that one is not noble. Here, we need to reflect. By virtue of our baptism, we share in the prophetic, priestly, and kingly offices of Jesus Christ. By virtue of our baptism, we are adopted into Christ and become part of what St. Augustine, Ambrose’s greatest disciple, refers to as “the whole Christ,” We are sons of God, who is King of the Universe.

You and I are noble, by divine codescension. Grace has moved us to accede to the movements of grace conveyed through the sacraments and the other means. Grace has caused us to ratify what God has chosen for us. We are noble. And so what are we to do?

Today’s Gospel gives us important clues. We proclaim the Kingdom and we perform miracles. If like me you are laity, you won’t be driving out demons; and we are not likely to perform the other stupendous works the Lord commissions the Twelve to perform. But we do live nobly when we use the powers given to us — the powers of grace and our natural powers — to attend to the needs of the poor and the sick, principally, but also to anyone in need of them. Anyone in need has a right to our attention: la noblesse oblige. We need to make prudential judgements as to how much attention we can give and what to do, but there is no taking a pass.

The Gospel appointed for the feast gives us a reason, hard though it is: we will give account for how we use what has been entrusted to us. Will we be like the servants who multiplied five talents (an enormous sum of money) into ten, or two into four; or will we be like the servant who cowered from his nobility and hid what was entrusted to him, out of fear?

These questions can likewise engender fear in us, but they need not. You and I are not like the servant entrusted with one talent: we are like the servants entrusted with five and with two. What set them apart from the cowardly servant was their confidence in the King’s goodness and in their ability to render him profit: they knew he would not have entrusted them with such goods had he no confidence in them.

Our King and Lord has confidence in you and me. How will we act today? If there is joy, if there is fear, whatever there is, let us set out for Bethlehem: Our King awaits us there. He gives us the means for the journey and the wisdom to use those means to render him fitting homage and return. Joy is the word of the day.