There are some good people whose zeal not being sufficiently tempered
with knowledge, as soon as they desire to give themselves up to a devout
life, fly from society and from intercourse with others as owls shun the
company of birds that fly by day. Their morose and unsociable conduct
causes a dislike to be taken to devotion instead of rendering it sweet
and attractive to all. Our Blessed Father was altogether opposed to such
moroseness, wishing His devout children to be by their example a light to
the world, and the salt of the earth, so as to impart a flavour to piety
which might tempt the appetite of those who would otherwise surely turn
from it with disgust. To a good soul who asked him whether Christians who
wished to live with some sort of perfection should see company and mix
in society, he answers thus: "Perfection, my dear lady, does not lie in
avoiding our fellow-men, but it does lie in not over-relishing social
pleasures and in not taking undue delight in them. There is danger for us
in all that we see in a sinful world, for we run the risk of fixing our
affections upon things worldly; at the same time to those who are steadfast
and resolute, the mere sight of the things of this world will do no harm.
In a word, the perfection of charity is the perfection of life, for the
life of our soul is charity. The early Christians, who were in the world in
their body though not in their heart, undoubtedly were very perfect."[1]
As regards the world's opinion of us, and the estimation in which we are
held by others, it is not well to be too sensitive. At the same time, to
be altogether indifferent about our reputation is blameworthy. Our Blessed
Prelate teaches his Philothea exactly what we have to do:
"If," he says, "the world despises us, let us rejoice, for it is right--we
see for ourselves that we are very contemptible. If it esteems us, let us
despise its esteem and its judgment, for it is blind. Trouble yourself
very little about what the world thinks; do not ask or even care to know.
Despise equally its appreciation and its contempt, and let it say what
it will, good or evil. I do not approve of doing what is not right, that
people may have a bad opinion of us. Transgressing is always transgressing,
and we are thereby making our neighbour transgress likewise. On the
contrary, I desire that, keeping our eyes always fixed upon our Lord, we do
what we have to do without regarding what the world thinks of us, or its
behaviour towards us. We need not endeavour to give others a good opinion
of ourselves, yet neither have we to try to give a bad one, and especially
must we be careful not to do wrong with this intent.
"But we can never stand quite well with the world; it is far too exacting.
If out of compliance we yield to it, and play and dance with it, it will be
scandalized; and if we do not, it will accuse us of hypocrisy and gloom;
if we are well-dressed it will impute to us some bad motive; and if we are
ill-dressed it will call us mean; it will style our gaiety dissoluteness
and our mortification gloom. It will exaggerate our failings and publish
our faults; and if it cannot find fault with our actions it will attack our
motives. Whatever we do the world will find fault. If we spend a long time
at confession it will ask what we can have to say; if we take but a short
time, it will say that we do not tell everything. If one little cross word
escape us it will pronounce our temper unbearable; it will denounce our
prudence as avarice, our gentleness as folly. Spiders invariably spoil the
bees' labour. Therefore, do not mind what opinion the world has of you,
good or bad; do not distress yourself about it, whichever it be. To say
that we are not what the world thinks, when it speaks well of us, is wise,
for the world, like a quack doctor, always exaggerates."
You question me, regarding the contempt which we should feel for the world
and the world's opinion of us; in other words you want to know exactly
what St. Paul means when he says that, being crucified to the world and
the world to us, we should glory only in the Cross of our Saviour Jesus
Christ.[2]
This seems to you a paradox; light evolved from darkness, and glory from
shame. Let me remind you that the Christian religion is full of such
paradoxes, and that we belong to an all-powerful God, who has given life to
us by His death; who has healed us by His wounds, and who makes us rich by
His poverty. I cannot, however, explain the difficulty to you better than
by quoting the words of our Blessed Father in one of his letters. He says:
"In this alone lies our glory, that our divine Saviour died for us, the
Master for His slaves, the just for the unjust."
[Footnote 1: Cf. _The Devout Life_. Part iv., c. 7.]
[Footnote 2: Galat. vi. 14.]