Thou believest that there is only one God: that is well enough,

but then so do the devils, and the devils shrink from him in terror.

James 2:19

That is the heritage left to us by the motto of the bashful: the disease of omission: the goodish man who is incapable of being bad.  It is a heritage of passivity.  The Great Head of the Christian family sent us all forth on the world to produce verdant fruit of immense activity and Christ does not deceive!

And the Church calls Herself militant, and the Church does not lie!

The early enthusiasts who followed their loving God did not defraud Him, because they did go out to the world, preaching by their lives and their words.  But we Christians of today are cheating Rome: what fighting have we ever done?

Warfare and omission: you think they are compatible?  Nonsense!

We are contenting ourselves with good will, and that is something, but it is not enough!  Have you forgotten the straightforward words of the Holy Ghost pronounced for Him by St. John: Et dabo unicuique vestrum secundum opera sua: “I… will repay each of you what his deeds have earned.”

The Christian should be the salt and light of the world for all souls.  Salt to give flavor, and light to illuminate.  A man who is content with omission, with the folly of merely avoiding evil, is a tasteless salt fit only for the manure-heap and a deathly pale light fit only to illuminate a cemetery.

What do you do for Christ every day?

The question should not frighten you.  You may understand this one better, although it is equally evangelical and Christian: What do you do for your fellowmen every day?  For those whom we call strangers but who are in fact our brothers.

How many barren fig trees there are, which yield only leaves and no fruit!  Leaves: speeches, opinions, words, advice useful for others!  “I will repay each of you what his deeds have earned.”

The Lord demands fruit!  An active faith.  A faith which is not transformed into works, a faith which makes no sacrifices for fellow-men, a faith which does not watch: the faith of the foolish virgins who will never enter into the kingdom of Heaven.  Perfect virginity, — but perfect stupidity!  They forgot to take oil: a sin of omission!

“Above all be untiring in pointing out that the Christian life does not consist in a multiplicity of different prayers and devotional practices, but rather in the spiritual progress of the faithful, and therefore the benefit of the whole Church, that they promote.”  These are words of Pope Pius XII.  They are words of the Encyclical Mediator Dei, warning us against a possible heresy of inaction, of omission, of doing nothing.

You who are content yourselves with doing nothing bad, do you not hear that unhappy cry, that heart-rending cry uttered by throats thirsty for truth, for joy, for health, raised straight to heaven, because on earth it finds no relief?  It is a blasphemous cry sadly uttered by the lips of the prodigal sons against their unloving brothers.

It is the unhappiness of the paralytics who have spent thirty-eight years lying in pain beside the probatic pool.  Are we going to pass them by indifferently, and not offer them a hand?

The Lord will approach them — the Lover of all men — and will ask the unfortunate paralytic who is stretched on the ground:  “Hast thou a mind to recover thy strength?”

“I have no one to let me down into the pool when the water is stirred; and while I am on my way, somebody else steps down before me.”

Have you a mind to recover your strength?” is the question Christ continues to ask the cripples of all ages.  More loudly than ever He asks: “Have you a mind to recover your strength?  There you have the waters!”  And a deafening roar like that of a hundred lions is heard over all the seas: a roar from those sick of soul who left God behind. 

“We have no one to help us.”

“We have no one to clean our wounds.”

“We have no one to let us down into the pool!”

Are you going to allow men — who are your brothers — to continue straying among the cold shadows of helplessness, you who can give them light?

Are you going to allow the cancer of pessimism to penetrate their soul, you who have hope — received from God for that man?

Cursed by God be the Christian who is not concerned about the soul of his prodigal son, of his sick brother, of his dead friend!

Omissions?  Content with avoiding sin?  Pass through life without leaving a trace?

What are we doing for Christ?  What are we doing for men?  I would like to imprint on the flesh of your heart that painful cry: Hominem non habeo: “I have no one.”

Will you flee from the world?  Will you flee from men?

You cannot commit that crime, for there are many sincere men abandoned in streets and parks, hospitals and lunatic asylums, strong young men but sick of soul, in the high social classes and in the slums: because there is not a soul to approach them with an offer of help.

What are you waiting for?  For them to go to a priest?  Do you not see that they will never go?  Do you not see that they are cripples and cannot move?  Do you not know that they fled from God and do not dare to utter His name?  How are they to pray when they have never been taught?

All right, stay at home and confine yourself to your own little group.  But pray for those men who go into the world of today, leaving everything, giving everything, so that the dead may recover life.  If you do not want to pray for them at least do not slander them.  They are like you — more enthusiastic than you — sons of God.

The mother of God also lives in the world and she loves all men.  And with the child in her womb, accompanied by Joseph, she goes from door to door.  She is in a hurry, a great hurry.

“Is there any room?”  They are looking for room, any place.  And those same men who do nothing bad would willingly allow God to be born in the gutter!  They do not ask for money: they ask for what men can easily give, but “there was no room for them in the inn.”  A door is closed, then another door, and another… and one heart is closed, then another, and another.

So God is born in a stable, beside beasts.  That is the result of a series of sins of omission.  And that happens every day.  A heart is closed, and another, and thousands of millions of hearts are closed to the Eucharist.

“There was no room for them in the inn.”

Christ wants to work with you, in the country or in the town, among your books or your brushes.  Do not close your inn to Him.

God asks your help in the birth of your sons.  Mothers, never close to Him the source of life.  Jesus wants to be born poor and weak in the little stable that you own.  Do not close your humble and dirty manger.

The ragged child goes from door to door.  Do not close your hand, which could be generous.

The Father searches among the travelers for His unfortunate son.  The strong man wishes to cure the lepers.  Never close your bloodstained heart.

- Man, The Saint [1]