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United in the Love of Christ Love demands an enterprising mentality. In the business world, for example, only the people and organizations that are enterprising get ahead and succeed. One gets no higher than one aims. So our zeal and urgency to reach souls for Christ must inspire and convince us to be ingenious and enterprising in the modern world if we are to attain this goal. Our noble ideal clearly has no room for prejudices, or any kind of inordinate nationalism. If we have the Spirit of God, we will rejoice to learn virtue or knowledge from anyone, whatever his or her nationality may be. We must all be open enough to attract and labor among all nationalities and races, while being eager to mix with all grades of society, from the highest to the lowest. We do not oppose patriotism, rather, we oppose an inordinate and disproportionate exaltation of any nation above the Church, her interests, and her associations of perfection. If we develop such an open disposition of mind, others may learn from our example. Jealousies and competitiveness arise when we are insecure about our progress relative to the progress of other individuals and institutions. To avoid this, we must firmly establish in our minds the truth that no single institute, including our own, is more important than the general end of all such institutions, which is to preach Jesus Christ. Our unity in Miles Jesu must flow from our common love for Jesus and for one another. We must all be willing to forgive one another and be humble enough to bend our personal views for the sake of union and charity. There is no such thing as love based on self-interest. Although we are composed of many nations, customs and colors, the grace and love of Jesus in our hearts unites us and makes us one spiritual family. Our love for one another will unify and attract many others to join us. True love is attractive and contagious. But this love must have its roots in God, Who is Love. Many saints and theologians observe that the love we have for God and the love we have for our neighbor is one and the same charity and virtue. St. Paul insists that the possession of love is more important than all other virtues. St. Peter wrote, 'Before all things I recommend to you charity and unbroken union with one another' (I Pet. 4:8). Our union and love is vital for our own preservation as an institute. Divisions, power struggles, and dissensions are the result of a loss of love and unity. Once divided, the devil will then proceed to conquer through back-biting, gossip, criticism, and the like. Our strength comes from our love and unity, but the greatest numbers fall apart when there is internal discord. Even our Lord asked his questioners how Satan's kingdom divided against itself could stand. United we stand, divided we fall. We all need to be diligent in increasing and preserving the unity and charity among ourselves. Since division frequently begins with the self-willed and unmortified, we must be careful to tame our tendencies to follow our own will instead of Christ's will. Frequent and open communication is necessary in order to preserve our union and love. Training ourselves to surrender our private opinions and judgments in obedience to the views and opinions of others is absolute. We must consider one another as equals, being in a humble way straightforward and open. We are neither the best nor the holiest, and we must admit our weaknesses, and therefore our need to band together. |