Jan 9 Fri
Can I fulfill myself within society?
A well-ordered society requires the presence of three essential relationships:
- man's connection to the world,
- to one another,
- and to God.
A young man approached his pastor to complain about the many mediocre souls he’s forced to keep company with at Mass. “Is there a parish somewhere,” he asks, “where people are actually saints? Would you please direct me to it?”
Suppressing a smile, the kind pastor tells him that, of course, there is such a parish. “Only you must remember,” he advises the young man, “that from the moment you join such a parish, its perfection will be diminished by your membership in it.”
Yes, the story is apocryphal, but that’s not the point. In fact, the perfect Church would be so pure that no human being could be a part of it. Only angels need apply.
Christ's thirst for souls remains as wide as creation itself. His Mystical Body must be no less generous than Him. God’s offer of salvation is extended to all, sinners included. Indeed, to disdain a Church that desires the company of the impure would amount to surrendering the entire sacramental mission of the Church, wiping out whole redemptive possibilities envisioned by Christ, who came to save all that has been created. Civilization, part of the order of creation, is sick and needs to be healed like all things.
Such a strategy will necessarily include, especially, the least morally pleasant people—ourselves. Didn’t Christ come primarily for people like us?
If only those as pure as driven snow are invited to the Church, the Church would be abandoning not only the poor, who are especially in need of grace, but civilization as well, which grace can use to assist the poor in coming home to God.
By the poor, we mean those who are spiritually disadvantaged—people lacking in the stuff of heroism, their souls steeped in mediocrity and sloth.
We must contribute to creating an order in which personal fulfillment is possible, and this should happen in the midst of the world.
Even the most spiritually destitute among us, people whose energies and lives are consumed by material and sensual pursuits, have been called to prayer, however tepid or episodic the effort may be.
A city that does not allow for gainful and honest employment is an inhuman city. This extends to the entire order of interpersonal relations rooted in justice and love; this is man in relation to other men.
Finally, there is the order of adoration, of man in relation to God. Once again, if the city does not make any provision for its citizens to pray, to talk to God, it would be an inhuman city. At the end of the day, therefore, no decent or sane city can remain hostile or indifferent to those things that aim at the perfection of the human personality, which necessarily includes access to God and the salvation He has promised.
With excerpts from Regis Martin