At the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the academic seminary conducted in connection with the Catholic University at Lille, someone recounted the following incident. When Pierre l'Ermite was preaching for his church, Sainte-Odile, he found one day in the collection plate a wedding ring with this note attached, "ten years of deception." By way of contrast the speaker wished to point out that none of the priests who went out from the seminary regretted having given himself to God. Theirs were no years of deception, but years of thanksgiving, years of fruitfulness, years of apostolic achievements, and intimate joys.
I have perhaps come in contact with not a few married persons; some of them were happy, but how many have confessed or have had great difficulty in concealing their failure, or at least the lesser disillusionments of their great life. Does not St. Francis de Sales seem severe, when he compares marriage in such an audacious manner with mushrooms, saying, "There are many bad ones and none excellent"?
We do not depreciate in the least the nobility of marriage, nor the joys that it brings, as well as the sanctity that it demands; that would be narrowness and injustice. But who can tell how fitful human love is? God alone is faithful, never deceiving. If anyone lives his religious life with fidelity, he must, if he is sincere, admit that his years passed in the service of the Master are full years; they may have had their trials, but ineffable joys surpassed by far every suffering.
_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
No comments:
Post a Comment