"THE WORLD NEEDS ME"
Some young people endeavor to persuade themselves that as the world
needs good men, they can better serve Church and State by remaining in
the secular life. The world, of course, does need good men and women,
and it has them, too; but even if there were a dearth of good
Christian laymen, is that any reason for you to refuse God's
invitation and sacrifice your own spiritual advancement and happiness
in order to help others? Our first duty is to ourselves. Are we to be
so enamored of benefiting others as to forego God's special love, and
to rest satisfied with a lower place in heaven? God invites you to
Him, and you turn away to devote yourselves to others, who perhaps
care little for you, and will profit less by your example.
And, moreover, once absorbed in the business and cares of life, you
may find yourself, like most others, so preoccupied in your own
personal advancement, in providing for yourself and those dependent on
you, that scarce a thought remains for the interests of your neighbor.
And thus your initial high resolve may soon sink to the low level of
beneficent effort you see in others. Selfishness, to a large extent,
rules in the world, and how can you promise yourself that you will
escape its grasp? He certainly is rash who thinks he can,
single-handed, contend against the world and its spirit.
No doubt many men and women of the world are devout Christians, and in
a thousand ways spread about them the good odor of Christ. Countless
brave Christian soldiers, upright statesmen, kings and peasants,
matrons and maids, are the pride of Christianity for what they have
done and dared in behalf of their neighbor. All honor to the virtuous
laity throughout the world to-day, who by their edifying lives, their
sacrifices for the faith, their unwearying industry, and fidelity to
Mother Church, are sanctifying their own souls, and assisting others
by example, counsel and charitable deed.
But for every layman that has distinguished himself by heroic devotion
to the welfare of his neighbor, many religious could be mentioned who
have done the same. We have all heard of Father Damien, who banished
himself to the isle of Molokai, where the outcast lepers of the
Sandwich Islands had been herded to rot and die; and there taking up
his abode, soon changed the lepers, who were living like wild beasts,
without law or morality, into gentle and fervent Christians. Having no
priest as a companion, he on one occasion rowed out to a passing
steamer, which was not allowed to land, to make his confession to a
bishop aboard. And while he sat in his row boat, because forbidden to
climb into the vessel, and shouted his sins to the bishop on the deck
above, the passengers looking curiously on, he certainly must have
been a spectacle to men and angels. And his sacrifice became complete
when he contracted the leprosy from his people, and thus gave up his
life for his flock.
Nor is this a solitary instance of such magnanimity. A short time ago,
when a Canadian bishop entered a convent and called for volunteers to
start a leper hospital, every nun stood up to offer her services. You
have heard of the great Apostle of the Indies, St. Francis Xavier, who
is said to have baptized more than a million pagans. St. Teresa, the
mystic, was not prevented by her cloister and her ecstacies from
helping her neighbor, for she founded a large number of convents, both
for men and women. Blessed Margaret Mary was only a simple nun in the
Visitation Convent of Paray-le-Monial, yet God chose her to make known
and spread the great devotion of the Sacred Heart, a devotion which
has brought more comfort and consolation to sorrowing humanity than
the combined philanthropic efforts of a century. God took a gay
cavalier, whose only ambition was to wear foppish clothes and thrum a
guitar, made him into a friar, and bade him found the great Franciscan
Order, whose glorious works for mankind cannot be enumerated.
And if we ponder the nature of religious life, the marvels
accomplished by simple religious cease to astonish us. One who devotes
the major portion of his time and attention to a definite object will
certainly attain great results. Now, most religious seek their own
sanctification in concentrating their energies on the welfare of their
neighbor, in ever studying, working, planning for his betterment. The
love of God, as shown in charity to others, is the absorbing purpose
of their life. On the other hand, the man of the world must generally
care first and foremost for himself and family, and only the time he
has left, incidentally as it were, can he bestow upon others.
This point is thus forcibly expressed by St. Paul (I Cor. vii: 32-34):
"He who is unmarried is solicitous for the things of the Lord, how he
may please God. But he who is married is solicitous for the things of
the world, how he may please his wife; and he is divided. And the
woman, unmarried and a virgin, thinketh on the things of the Lord,
that she may be holy in body and soul. But she who is married,
thinketh on the things of the world, how she may please her husband."
The works of the religious orders are varied and numerous. Some care
for the outcasts of society, some for the sick or the old, the orphan
and the homeless; others, leaving the comforts and conveniences of
modern life, cheerfully face the danger and hardships of remotest
lands to bring the light of the Gospel to pagan nations. More than a
million Chinese to-day are fervent Christians, and to whom do they owe
their faith under God? To religious missionaries. The Benedictines of
old spent their lives in the pursuit of learning, and in teaching
barbarous tribes the art of husbandry. The glorious Knights Templar
were a militant order; and the members of the Order of the Blessed
Trinity for the redemption of captives, the first to wear our national
colors of freedom, the red, white and blue, sold themselves into
slavery for the release of others. Scarcely a want or need of the
human race has not been provided for by some religious body.
But probably the most common pursuit of religious bodies in our day is
teaching. Hundreds of thousands of religious men and women, in all
lands whence they are not banished, spend their lives in the
class-room. And the reason for this preference is the extraordinary
demand for schools in every direction. The young must be taught, and
Holy Mother Church knows only too well that religious training must
be woven into the fibre of secular learning if we would not have a
conscienceless and irreligious generation. So she issues her stirring
appeal for volunteer teachers, and a vast multitude of religious have
responded in solid phalanx. Some one has said that if all the
sisterhoods were taken out of our schools in the United States, we
should soon have to close half our churches.
Religious, then, are carrying on vast and important works for the
benefit of the Church and society. Many other services which they
render might be mentioned, such as preaching and hearing confessions,
the publication of books and periodicals, the cultivation of the arts,
science, literature and theology. But enough has been said to show
that they are leading a strenuous life, and that boy or maid, who is
emulous of heart-stirring deeds, could scarcely find a more propitious
field of action than in the religious state.