CHRIST IN THE HOME
http://www.ewtn.com/library/FAMILY/CHRISTH1.TXT
BY RAOUL PLUS, S.J.
a Translation from the French
FREDERICK PUSTET CO., INC. Publishers NEW YORK AND
CINCINNATI
Nihil Obstat:
JOHN M. A. FEARNS, S.T.D., Censor Librorum
Imprimatur:
+FRANCIS CARDINAL SPELLMAN,
Archbishop of New York
New York, June 19, 1951
INTRODUCTORY READINGS
FANTASY OR SACRED DUTY
IN his interesting book, "Man the Unknown," Alexis Carrel makes this statement:
"Each individual is set by the conditions of his development upon the
road which will lead him either to the solitary mountains or to the
mud of the swamps where humanity contents itself."
If not rightly understood, this statement might imply that, by a sort
of pre-established harmony over which we have no control, we are
inevitably directed in spite of ourselves either toward the heights
or toward the lowlands.
It could be that because of inherited tendencies, family traditions,
examples we may have witnessed, or the training we have received, we
are more strongly drawn either to laziness or to generosity. However,
everyone has the duty on his own responsibility to make himself what
he ought to be. The problem of salvation and the degree of sanctity
to be attained is essentially an individual problem. We save
ourselves or we damn ourselves; we conquer ourselves or we let
ourselves be conquered--these are all personal verbs.
"Everyone has the duty," that is the reality. It is not a matter of
satisfying a fantasy, a more or less poetic taste for the heights. So
much the better if the heights tempt me! So much the worse for me if
I am the prey of a positive spirit of low ideals. I do not have to
strive for the Christian ideal simply because of a certain forceful
subjective attraction. No, I have an obligation to strive for it and
this obligation springs from the Gospel command, a command given to
all, Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Am I perhaps too much in the habit of seeing in the Gospel only the
restrictions it imposes upon me? Of viewing religion from the
negative side? I must accustom myself to consider the Gospel from the
positive aspect--the call to sanctity. The capital problem for the
Christian who wants to be a real Christian is not the problem of sin
but the problem of perfection.
Not to fall back!
Much more and much better--to rise.
In the "Journal of Salavin" by George Duhamel, Salavin laments in
self-disgust, "How can one resign himself to being only what one is
and how try to be other than what one is." Then he declares:
"After some indefinite time, I am going to go away."
"And where are you going?"
"Nowhere."
Evading--when it should be a matter of ascending.
For me as a Christian, the road is known. I know where to go. And the
instructions are clear. Someone expressed them in three points:
1. To commit this year the least number of sins possible. 2. To
acquire this year the most virtues possible. 3. To do to others the
most good possible.
Here is a program that will not only avoid the abyss but lead to the heights.
<*}}}>< <http://halfthekingdom.mofuse.mobi/>Half the Kingdom!
on your Mobile <*}}}><
<*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/wordpress/>Half the Kingdom!
Blog <*}}}><
<*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Half the Kingdom! Main Site
<*}}}>< <*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/by-the-by/>Half the
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Lord, may everything we do begin with Your inspiration and continue
with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
<*}}}>< <http://halfthekingdom.mofuse.mobi/>Half the Kingdom!
on your Mobile <*}}}><
<*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/wordpress/>Half the Kingdom!
Blog <*}}}><
<*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Half the Kingdom! Main Site
<*}}}>< <*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/by-the-by/>Half the
Kingdom! By the by <*}}}><
Lord, may everything we do begin with Your inspiration and continue
with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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