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
MARRIAGE
MARRIAGE AND THE COUNSELS (1)
IS IT possible to arrive at perfection without following the
evangelical counsels?
Put in this way, the question can have two answers depending on
whether the effective practice of the counsels is to be understood or
simply the spirit of the counsels.
1. Perfection consists in the exercise of charity as the duty of
one's state implies it. "Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is
perfect" was said to all not just to priests and religious.
And again to all, "Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with thy whole
heart, and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind and with all
thy strength."
The perfection of charity is commanded to all and not only counselled.
That the evangelical counsels are a help to the exercise of the
virtue of charity for those who have elected to live by them is
certain; they are not the only means.
The Gospel makes it perfectly clear: There is the observance of the
Commandments--a necessity for all; there is the observance of the
counsels--for those who desire it; those only would be obliged to
adopt this second means who have evidence that without them they
could not attain their salvation--a rare case indeed.
2. But it appears to be a very difficult thing to arrive at the
perfection of charity without adopting the spirit of the counsels.
In fact there are three great obstacles to the perfect service of
God: excessive attachment to the goods of earth; the tendency to seek
purely selfish satisfactions where the affections of the heart are
concerned; finally the habit of obeying not so much God's will for
our life as personal caprice and the false demands of the world.
From this it is evident that the pursuit of perfection presupposes
the spirit of detachment; it means using things, as Saint Paul would
say, as if we did not use them at all. That suggestion is good not
only for life in the cloister but every bit as good if not more so,
in view of the greater difficulty, in the simple life of observing
the Commandments. The spirit of poverty in either case is essential.
The pursuit of perfection while living in the midst of the world
likewise calls for the spirit of chastity, the chastity of the
heart--not to the point of having to deprive themselves of everything
as those do who are vowed to the virginal state but to the point of
the privations necessary to meet the demands of the conjugal state.
Therefore, the spirit of chastity is equally essential.
Striving for perfection in the midst of the world still allows the
individual entire liberty regarding many of the details of life, the
so-called good things of life as well as ideas, companionship, dress.
The soldier Ernest Psichari yearned as he used to say "to be free of
everything except Jesus Christ."
Strive for obedience to God alone who said "Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and all the rest shall be added unto you." I must not let "the
rest" take precedence over "the Kingdom."
Obedience to God should not be marked by formal passivity but by
vision and conviction. Let me measure the distance from the place I
am now to the summit of Christianity.
MARRIAGE AND THE COUNSELS (2)
THIS subject has too great significance for one meditation only.
Before the Fall there was a triple harmony in man:
--Harmony between God and the soul: Adam and Eve conversed familiarly
with the Most High who used to walk with them at twilight in
Paradise; He often left His footprints in the sands of their garden.
--Harmony within man himself between his body and soul: The senses
were active but they were submissive to reason and will;
concupiscence existed but it was just concupiscence not evil
concupiscence; the powers of desire were not inordinate.
--Harmony all about man, between him and nature: The animals were
subject to him and were not hostile to him. Inanimate nature did not
refuse its secrets to his work which was but a joyous extension of
his activity and not as it has become in part at least--fatiguing
labor. "You shall eat your bread in the sweat of your brow."
Then came the Fall. Immediately this beautiful balance was destroyed.
Man revolted against God. The result: Man's senses rose up against
right reason and will enlightened by faith; nature and all about man
turned hostile. There would be wild beasts and venomous creatures
among the animals; the earth would resist his toil and the labor of
generations to come, revealing its treasures only with discouraging
parsimony and at the cost of fearful toil and sweat.
What should be most profitable for my meditation is the consideration
of the revolt in man himself, his lower powers against his higher
powers. From then on man would have to struggle against the triple
and fatal inclination which was born in him:
--An inclination to take an exaggerated possession of the goods of
the earth, the fruit of concupiscence of the eyes: Man will rush
after all that glitters. How many crimes have been committed because
of an unregulated love of money!
--An inclination to seek after excessive carnal satisfactions
contrary to true discipline of the senses and the commands of God.
What crimes have not the follies of lust produced!
--An inclination to pride: Man, proud of his liberty, but not
sufficiently concerned about keeping it in dependence on reason and
the Divine Will, runs the risk of forgetting the majesty and
sovereignty of God and the prime duty of obedience to the Master of all.
How can one struggle effectively against this triple and dangerous inclination?
Do violence to self, declare spiritual writers with good common
sense. First and foremost among them in suggesting this technique is
Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Choose the counterpart: poverty, chastity, obedience.
Religious men and women make it the matter of a vow. Their lives
serve as an inspiring example to draw forward those whose lesser
courage or less demanding vocation have kept in the common way of life.
I shall hold religious life in high esteem. Although my vocation is
different I shall learn to live in a wise spirit of detachment from
created things, of chastity according to my state, and of obedience
to the Holy Spirit.
MARRIAGE AND VOWS
THE problem of personal vocation, as I have seen from my meditations,
is not a problem to be solved in the abstract, in pure theory, but in
the concrete, taking each particular case into consideration. The
best vocation in an individual case is not the vocation which is best
in itself but the best in fact, that is the one which Divine
Providence prepares for each person.
I have recognized mine quite clearly. I have no worry on that score.
Without wishing to belittle in the least the merits of those who
pronounce religious vows--for they are privileged souls-- can I not
in a way compare my life with theirs and find a resemblance between them?
In the writings of his mother which the poet Lamartine published we
find these lines:
"Today I attended the Investment of some hospital sisters. The sermon
which was addressed to them was beautiful: The speaker told them that
they had chosen for life a state of penance and of mortification. A
crown of thorns was placed upon their heads to symbolize this . . . I
greatly admired their self-sacrifice; but I reflected that the state
of a mother of a family can approach the perfection of theirs if she
fulfills her duties.
"A person doesn't give enough thought to the fact that when she
marries she also makes a vow of poverty since she practically puts
her fortune into her husband's hands, and that he has something to
say about how she spends money.
"She makes a vow of obedience to her husband and a vow of chastity
inasmuch as she is not permitted to seek to please any other man. She
also dedicates herself to the exercise of charity toward her husband
and her children; she has the obligation to care for them in sickness
and to give them her wise counsel."
Isn't there much truth in this comparison? Evidently in the case of
marriage, husbands and wives are largely compensated for the
sacrifices they have to make by the joy that comes to them from life
together. In the virginal state there is no such human compensation.
That is no reason to underestimate the value of the married state.
Because the one state is more beautiful, it does not follow that the
other is not very beautiful.
It may well be that a certain father or mother who hesitated before
entering the married state because they felt called to the life of
consecrated virginity fulfilled God's plans for religious vocations
better by their marriage; God used them as instruments for a series
of vocations that would develop among their offspring.
When Pius X was promoted to the bishopric of Mantua, he paid a visit
to his mother at Riese. "Mamma, look at my beautiful episcopal ring."
His eighty year old mother let her wrinkled fingers pass over the
ring thoughtfully. Then she said, "It is true, Guiseppe; your ring is
beautiful; but you would not have had it, if I had not had this one,"
and she held up her wedding ring.
THE SOCIAL IDEAL
YOUNG Maurice Retour found himself at the head of a textile factory
upon the early death of his father.
Shortly before his marriage, he wrote to his bride-to-be.
"To know that more than three hundred persons depend on you for their
daily bread, to be certain that with work, intelligence, and patience
you can make them earn more, what else would you need to become
inspired with the desire to discover all possible improvements."
He let his fiancee know that he planned to have her share in the
furtherance of his enterprise. He added:
"To be a Christian, to have the happiness of knowing your wife will
one day work hand in hand with you, to feel that you possess this
sister-soul to help bring to success the noble and beautiful ideal
you dreamed of accomplishing is almost too great a bliss; it's enough
to make you beside yourself with joy."
The young industrialist, in full agreement with his wife, set himself
to the duty of providing the desired improvements: a free Saturday, a
cafeteria for the workers, a benefit fund. Naturally he was
criticized by his fellow industrialists who did not have a like
Christian sense. But he held his own and went even farther. Sometimes
before some of his reforms which had as their only purpose better
conditions for the workers, a number of the workers themselves either
from force of habit or ill-will evidenced displeasure. He still kept
to his plan, tried to win them over and was patient with them.
In spite of his firm principles, the exactness of his economic and
sociological knowledge, his good judgment, his Christian spirit which
guaranteed the usefulness of his efforts, he was still eager to be
supported in his labors; he told his wife his difficulties and asked
for her opinion and advice. He counted on her either to help him to
study and to grow in his understanding of social problems or more
often still to have a part in his work.
In the fight against alcoholism, in the care of the workers'
children, in the visitation of the sick, in planning for big
celebrations, in organizing vacation camps, what a wide field there
was for the wife of an industrialist!
Maurice Retour did not believe in getting himself involved in so many
activities that he would neglect his factory; interest in free
schools, attendance at Saint Vincent de Paul meetings were all fine,
but they should not separate him from his factory.
"We ought to think first of our workers, of their children, of those
who are in our direct contact in order not to scatter our efforts in
all directions uselessly. Let us try to sow a bit of happiness about
us . . . Let us give as much as we can to others . . . We are
responsible for the good we do not do . . . All our life spent in
this work hand in hand, united in the same ideal, the same faith, the
same great love would not be too much."
From the Front in 1915, he often wrote asking for news: "Tell me
about our dear workers of whom I think so often."
What a god-send when a wife finds in her husband such a magnificent
social spirit; when an industrialist finds in his wife someone who
understands him and backs him up!
<*}}}>< <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.
<*}}}>< <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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