At Genoa there is a cemetery called lIe Campo Santo; it is filled with magnificent tombs of granite and marble which make it a point of interest for travelers. Sometimes the inscriptions are singularly revealing. One imposing slab of stone indicates that the person whose grave the mausoleum marks was an honest fruit dealer; she had cherished only one ambition in her life, to save, to hoard, to economize, that she might buy before her death a monument high enough to suit her.
A whole existence spent to obtain at death a slab of stone that would not look insignificant!
Most probably I find this fruit dealer perfectly ridiculous.
But at the same time, if someone were to read my conscience, the motives which influence me, the reasons for my effort, as for example to succeed in the occupations which have been confided to me, or to please a superior or official, would I not appear just as ridiculous?
Much more so, perhaps. The good merchant of Genoa did not have the graces of light that I have, nor was she called as I to the perfection of Christianity, to the perfection of detachment.
But I, how justly could others ridicule me, if they could read in me the true motives of my zeal, of my devotion, of my obedience. I will seek to purify my actions; purify my intentions. God alone!
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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