As a Catholic I can certainly say that I have come into the world to continue the work begun by the Redeemer. Like Him, I am to cast fire upon the earth. Every human being who will cross my path today, or any day, or under what conditions soever, takes His place. Every fellow creature Of mine is loved by God, is capable of knowing God and loving God, and attaining, not only to eternal salvation, but even to the heights of great sanctity. If in meeting me he meets a Person for whom divine love is not a mere "idle tale" but a living reality, that soul will undoubtedly be influenced to know and love God better.
Far from me, in view of the infinite largesse of the giving in the Incarnation, to restrict my apostolate and my service to what is of mere "duty." Communists do not so restrict their activities; they are "on the job" twentyfour hours of the day. Priests who have lived with them will tell you that they are fired with a zeal for Communism that seems explicable only by saying that it is inspired and sustained by Satan. A priest was being rowed in a boat by a simple Chinese peasant, an ardent Communist and a very old man. It was midnight, and the priest, exhausted, was trying to snatch a few minutes of sleep. But the old man roused him. He wanted to question all about Moscow, to learn about Stalin, to hear of the successes of the Party. This at midnight, in the heart of China, and from an old man nearing the grave!
If Catholics, with such zest before them shown by God's enemies, intend to go around with a balance in their hands and weigh out just precisely where duty ends and begins and refuse to advance an inch farther, they would be well advised to sit secure and snug at home.
If I exercise zeal as a Catholic, it is true I may not be the gainer, if gain is to be estimated in dollars or notoriety. Even my fellow Catholics may look down their nose at me. I may be treated patronizingly. I may be a failure in what I attempt. I may end up in a concentration camp. I may be asked to die for Christ. Nobody will deny that these are imminent possibilities for any Catholic, in any land in our modern world.
But there is the other side. Listen to the immortal St. Paul and learn to revise your notions of success and failure. "Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Or distress? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or danger? Or persecution? Or the sword? ... In all these things we over come for the sake of Him that loveth us. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ Our Lord."
Is this the language of a slave of duty? Is this the ideal of a man who never loses sight of personal gain?
Nor will a Catholic be frightened away if his work for God brings him in close contact with what is naturally distasteful. A Catholic nurse or doctor will tend a patient who is naturally repulsive, will do tasks that are uncongenial, and will do them because the Catholic sees Christ in the suffering member.
Disease can be revolting, so can poverty and filth, so can ingratitude and selfpity on the part of those I try to help. But I am not going to be deterred. The priest passed by, and the levite turned the other way, because the wounded man was disgusting to look at. But Jesus Christ knew sin as nobody else and hated it with all the intensity of His immaculate soul at the same time that He loved the sinner and came to his assistance "propter nimiam caritatem."
Jesus, teach me a love for others closely modeled on Your divine love. What a revolution we Catholics have to effect: to change the horrible doctrine of mutual hatred into one of deep mutual love! It would happen almost overnight if every Catholic was imbued with this revolutionary spirit. Jesus, let me begin in myself, and let me spread what You teach me here in the minds and hearts of others.
Summary:
1. The meaning of the parable of the Good Samaritan.
2. Three reasons why Christ came being the same which caused the priest and the levite to pass by.
3. The same three reasons in my own Catholic life.
Thought:
"Who will deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Our Lord Jesus Christ."