Letter 40: The circumcision of the heart
Our eagerness to serve others, frequently arises from mere natural generosity and a refined self-love; it may soon turn into dislike and despair. But true charity is simple, and ever the same towards the neighbor, because it is humble, and never thinks of self. Whatever is not included in this pure charity, must be cut off.
It is by the circumcision of the heart that we are made children and inheritors of the faith of Abraham, in order that we may, like him, quit our native country without knowing whither we go. Blessed lot! to leave all and deliver ourselves up to the jealousy of God, the knife of circumcision! Our own hand can effect nothing but superficial reforms; we do not know ourselves, and cannot tell where to strike; we should never light upon the spot that the hand of God so readily finds. Self-love arrests our hand and spares itself; it has not the courage to wound itself to the quick. And besides, the choice of the spot and the preparation for the blow, deaden its force. But the hand of God strikes in unexpected places, it finds the very joint of the harness, and leaves nothing unscathed. Self-love then becomes the patient; let it cry out, but see to it that it does not stir under the hand of God, lest it interfere with the success of the operation. It must remain motionless beneath the knife; all that is required is fidelity in not refusing a single stroke.
I am greatly attached to John the Baptist, who wholly forgot himself that he might think only of Christ; he pointed to Him, he was but the voice of one crying in the wilderness to prepare the way, he sent Him all his disciples, and it was this conduct, far more than his solitary and austere life, that entitled him to be called the greatest among them that are born of women.
The end.
Footnotes
1 "The circumcision of the heart" — Fénelon's final letter returns to the image Paul uses in Romans 2:29 and Colossians 2:11. The cutting away of all that is carnal, self-centered, and resistant to God is the work of the Spirit in the believer. It is painful, but it is the surgery that makes the heart free to love God without reservation.
2 François Fénelon (1651–1715) served as Archbishop of Cambrai in France. His spiritual writings, composed largely as personal counsel for individuals under his direction, have become classics of Christian devotion. His emphasis on pure love, self-abandonment, and the interior work of God in the soul connects him to the great mystical tradition of the church while remaining deeply practical and pastoral.