Maria Legionis North Amercan Edition No. 2 of 2014 May Jun Jul 2014
Church or Chaplaincy
It seems to me that
the chief need of the day is to bring home to every Catholic that on
him rests the positive duty of going out and seeking conversions to
the Church.
What is the Church?
The Church is a
society in which Jesus Christ lives, and which exists for the purpose
of bringing Him to all men. If in any place the Church were not
leading that life, then it would be untrue to its mission. Were the
Church in any place to do no more than minister to those already in
its own ranks, it would only be a partial being there. It would have
turned itself into a chaplaincy; and Christ never intended His Church
to be a mere chaplaincy.
But the Church is
made up of its members; can only operated through them; and stands or
falls in them. It follows that from each individual member
the Church requires responsibility for and co-operation in its work.
But one cannot say that such is being given in that primary
department of the Church's action, the winning of converts. It in not
realised by the rank and file that it is their bounden duty to bring
the Faith to everyone—without exception—who does not possess it.
That
conviction of imperative duty being absent; and the
difficulties—interior and external, natural and supernatural—being
many and great, what can result but deadly inertia?
It
would be a terrible thing, if from the successes we have had we were
to gain the impression that we really have greatly advanced; because
we have not. What has been done is only beautiful because of the hope
it affords, not because of the actual achievement.
Admittedly
the fact that 110 non-Catholics attended our last Retreat is a
wonderful thing if viewed from the standpoint of seven years ago, or
from the angle of complete inaction. But viewed in the light of the
vast number of non-Catholics around us, it is only a notch above
nothing. Therefore, this evening is not to be a time of
self-satisfaction but a consolidation of our gains, of taking stock,
of planning a further advance which will in the end encompass all
those who are outside the Fold.
Causes
of Inertia
That
inertia of which I speak does not necessarily mean indifference.
Actually it can be found co-existing with real, downright anxiety to
win people to the Church, just as in the heart of a paralyzed man may
be found an ardent anxiety for action which the physical restrictions
withhold from him. In many cases that inertia springs from a natural
cause. If you study people, you will find what an extraordinary
severance can be between the powers of cogitation and those of
action, so that the most terrific action may take place in the mental
department without every being translated into physical action. That
gap exists in everybody. It is narrow in what we would call the man
of action. It is pretty wide in the average man. In a certain
proportion of people it is a yawning, almost unbridgeable chasm.
Inertia can proceed from other causes—the fact, for instance, that
people require to be shown the path, require each other's support.
One
may realize the need for action; one may be capable of that action;
and yet not know the way to go about it.
Remedy
for Inertia
The
remedy for that inertia lies in the application of organization. In
other words, you set up a system which bridges the gap and which
pushes people over that bridge. The Legion itself represents an
example of the effectiveness of such organization.
Before
we came into the Legion we were all of us (except perhaps the
superman or superwoman amongst us, who were few) doing nothing. We
would have persevered in that inglorious condition. But Fate operated
to bring us into an organization which held a certain idealism and
which subjected us to a sweet pressure. Then in the measure that we
submitted ourselves to that pressure we found ourselves doing things.
The results that have come are heartening, because they seem to prove
that it is possible to organize the entire community, and any
community, in the same way and to get no less results. Consequently,
the horizon of hope which stretches before us is unbounded.
Even
inside such organization itself we can take an incorrect view of our
duty. You saw little signs of that cropping up amongst yourselves
during the day—a certain lack of understanding of where duty lies.
Considering that you have been in an apostolic mold and in a
stimulating atmosphere for a considerable time, and if—in spite of
that—there is hesitancy, what of those who have not had your
advantages? I fear we can take it as an unfortunate fact that the
ordinary run of unorganized Catholics do not recognize themselves as
having any duty in this particular direction. In fact, some people go
very violently into reverse and conceive it even to be an incorrect
thing to do anything. They make a virtue of inaction. They clothe it
in sugared phrases: “We must not unsettle other people!” “If
they are in good faith, let us leave them so!” “We must respect
the beliefs of other!” and so forth. This phraseology is familiar
to us all. In practice its effect is deadly. What does it mean but
that we are to try to convert nobody except those who convert
themselves?--which is what is called an “Irish bull.” And like
the same animal in the proverbial china-shop, that virtuous inaction
wreaks havoc in the Church. It tones down its mission. It perverts
its meaning. It turns to mere domestic purposes the infinite ocean of
grace which is meant to irrigate the universal desert of unbelief.
The—extra tragedy!--that domestic stream tends to dry up. Actual
experience proves that we do not hold even our own members. They slip
away between our fingers. And what else could happen? Our practical
indifference towards those arid souls outside had earned disaster for
ourselves.
Prayer
No Substitute for Action
There
is another phrase which many use to soothe the holy pang which they
may feel from hearing those repeated references to the reaching of
all men. They say; “We pray for those outside the Church.” We
pray for them! Of course that is to the good, if we do pray for them.
Sometimes that is no more than a conventional phrase. But even when
it means something, I wonder who told those people that their prayer
alone suffices? We are in the world, and action is called for from
us. And to the extent that we do not act along with prayer, we do not
get results. Again, what do those persons who talk about praying mean
exactly? How much prayer do they mean? Are they going to spend two or
three hours of an evening praying just as you have to spend two or
three hours in your laborious Legionary efforts? No, those people
mean a Pater and Ave—perhaps only an Ave!
Qualifications
for Action
Then
there is that other plausible but crippling thought which whispers
that you are not qualified to make an approach to others, and
accordingly that you are exempt from trying. But who is qualified?
The priests, of course, are. But they are the very class which is the
most cut off from the non-Catholic. But surely knowledge, ability to
argue, etc., are essential? Here you must distinguish between the
instruction of converts and the seeking of them. The former demands
knowledge; the latter only zeal. Read what your handbook says on this
subject. Also recall what happened in the early Church. If this is
going too far back for you, reflect on what took place last year in
Nairobi—where our native Legionaries brought in 1,000 catechumens.
So
beware of those opium-like sayings which pull with the inertia
instead of against it, and which neutralize the program of action
which fell from Divine lips. I do not say that those cautious phrases
are always wrong. Sometimes they may refine your action. But doubt
them when they tend to paralyze it. Remember, too, that even a fine
plan of action may cause inaction. For the ideal may not immediately
be practicable. Then we piously hold ourselves excused from doing
anything, instead of working bravely at the second-best—which would
eventually bring us to the best. As has been said, the ideal is often
the enemy of the good.
Effort
is Paramount
Action
is paramount. You may
challenge this and say that Grace is paramount; and, of course, it
is, inasmuch as absolutely nothing can be accomplished without Grace.
That is a fact about which we in the Legion have no illusions
whatsoever. We realize fully that everything depends upon the Lord.
But in a sense, too, it does not; because that grace will always be
given if it be properly sought; then its action is automatic; we can
take the gift of it for granted. What is in doubt is our own
cooperation, not God's. Thus we can hark back to what I have already
said and once again urge on you—that effort is paramount. Simple
effort must come first; after that, supreme effort, after that—and
only after that—enlightened, artistic brilliant, genius-like
effort. Nothing is expected of anybody except what he has got. A man
who is not a genius cannot elicit qualities that are proper to
genius. Nevertheless, his misdirected, clumsy, stupid effort will be
equal to the effort of the genius, if it is all that he can give, and
if he does not fall below the genius in the faith and love he puts
into it.
Grace
Follows Effort
If
the maximum of effort is forthcoming, then grace will come,
overflowing, conquering, miraculous grace, like any of the highlights
of the past. We have a current example of that in the case of an
air-raid shelter in Liverpool where Legionaries were saying the
Rosary. A land-mine fell beside the densely-packed shelter; yet in
circumstances that were patently miraculous the people all escaped
unscathed. The Legionaries had finished the fourth decade of the
Rosary when the mine dropped. Then when they pulled themselves
together and realized that they were still on earth, their first
thought was to give out the fifth decade in thanksgiving. The sequel
was that twenty persons handed in their names for instruction. I
suppose many believe mass conversions to be impossible at the present
day. Not so. Make the proper claim on the Lord and He will respond
with big things.
The
Gospel to Every Living Creature
Another
principle is that the number of your contacts should be the main
consideration, and not the emphasizing of quality or promise. This
sounds very odd, I know, but it is logical. It seems to me that the
concentrating on quality and on alleged promising people is a
dangerous mirage which will lead you astray. Who are we to judge as
to who are the promising? Sometimes things work out very differently
indeed to what they promise—sometimes the very opposite. The
eligible and the promising never fructify, while the unpromising
often yields rich fruit. A multitude of eminent cases attest to
that. Only the Lord can judge the heart. None of us should venture to
do so. Our job is to seek out all, and to bestow on all unbounded,
heroic effort.
I
repeat the following examples which history records of
unlikely-looking people who entered Christ's Church: the thief on the
Cross, Oscar Wilde and W.H. Mallock, contemporaries at Oxford. On the
other hand, there are rather notable examples like Gladstone, or the
late Lord Halifax, who stood on the border and appeared to be about
to come in, and yet who died outside the Church.
Moreover,
the Morning Star men, or the Sancta Maria women, would not appear to
represent the most promising of material. Yet—without having worked
out figures, but with a certain degree of confidence—I venture to
assert that they exhibit a higher ratio of conversion to the Church
than other sections of the population. Another striking case: Some
time ago an able young Mohammedan Indian stated at a meeting of the
Overseas Club that the remedy for the divisions and antagonisms of
India was to take a leaf out of the Russian book and to atheize the
country. I reflected to myself that of all who were there he afforded
the very least prospect of conversion. Now consider this: He was the
first of all that body to come into the Church! So much for human
judgments!
And
here is another example: A group of us were the other evening
discussing a distinguished man. He had come to us labeled, so to
speak, by a person of great discernment, as an outstanding soul who
was very near to the Church. Our group could discern very little of
the spiritual in him at all. Who was right? It only shows how
impossible it is to form an accurate judgment of people's
qualities—let alone of their souls. Therefore, we should be slow to
indulge in that sort of classification.
The
Church Must Reach Every Soul
The
more numerous the contacts, the more numerous will be the
conversions. There is a mathematical ring about that, but it will
work out true. But there is a higher principle than that which
requires the multiplication of your contacts. It is the one I have
already mentioned—that through you the Church must reach every
soul. So it is a case of the carrying out of a mission, not the
following up of anything that my seem promising. And even if those
contacts seem vain and worthless and barren, and even if by some
prophetic glance you know them to be vain, still you are to follow
them up. Why? Because God has said so. I was much impressed once by
an account which I read of a French Missionary in China. He had been
a very distinguished layman in France. He left all, became a priest,
and went out on the Mission to China. Apparently he was working in a
bad spot. He did not accomplish much during all his time there.
Somebody asked him if he were getting results. He said, “No”. And
the inquirer with an eye on his past brilliant career, suggested to
him that he was wasting his talents and that he should seek a more
promising field of labor. His answer was: “I am not here because of
past success nor because of prospective success. I ma here because of
the command that the Gospel be preached to every creature.” That
noble remark contains a lesson for all. Incidentally, it puts the
mission of the Church in a nutshell. Clutch that nutshell to
yourselves, and note that when that commission was originally given
by Our Lord, there was no suggestion of any process of selection, or
of promising contacts, or of non-approach to those who had beliefs.
The commission was made comprehensive. Approach was to be to all.
Casting
the Net
If
still you have any misgivings regarding those to whom you are to go,
or the way in which you are to go, and if you find yourself thinking
in terms of selection and circumspection, then thing of that other
command: “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city,
into the highways and hedges, and compel those you find to enter in.
“There is not much of the element of discrimination there. We would
be topical in calling it a “mopping-up operation.”
Furthermore,
there is even the note of capture and compelling. Where are the
niceties in all that? There are none. What is painted for you is
someone burning with zeal for the Lord's Kingdom going out into all
sorts of places, getting after all sorts of people—and with a
gentle insistence inducing them to come in.
And
again, the image of the Church that
is put before us in the Gospel is that of a ship. It is a fisherman's
craft, and the fishing therefrom is done by nets—not by rod and
line; nor is it directed to the princely salmon or trout alone. That
casting of a net is the undiscriminating gesture that the Church must
always make, and that we, as units of the Church must imitate. The
net is cast regardless of what is going to be brought up in it—big,
little, good or bad. We must even throw it out where there is little
or no prospect of anything coming in; for you will remember the
incident in the Gospel which is commended to us—the casting of the
net in faith where all previous castings had been fruitless.
You
know the sequel. The net was filled to breaking-point with great
fish.
This
article was first published in Maria Legionis during the second World
War