"In this world of ours there are many
people who neglect God. It may be that they have not had an opportunity to
listen to his words, or that they have forgotten them. Yet their human
dispositions are honest, loyal, compassionate and sincere. I would go so far as
to say that anyone possessing such qualities is ready to be generous with God,
because human virtues constitute the foundation for the supernatural virtues.
It is true that in themselves such personal
qualities are not enough, for no one is saved without the grace of Christ. But
if a man fosters and cultivates the seeds of virtue within him, God will smooth
out his path, and such a person will be able to become holy because he has
known how to live as a man of good will.
You may perhaps have noticed other cases
which are in a certain sense just the opposite; so many people who call
themselves Christians because they have been baptised and have received other
sacraments, but then prove to be disloyal and deceitful, insincere and proud,
and... they fail to achieve anything. They are like shooting stars, lighting up
the sky for an instant and then falling away to nothing.
If we accept the responsibility of being
children of God, we will realise that God wants us to be very human. Our heads
should indeed be touching heaven, but our feet should be firmly on the ground.
The price of living as Christians is not that of ceasing to be human or of
abandoning the effort to acquire those virtues which some have even without
knowing Christ. The price paid for each Christian is the redeeming Blood of Our
Lord and he, I insist, wants us to be both very human and very divine,
struggling each day to imitate him who is perfectus Deus, perfectus homo."
St. Josemaría Escrivá
St. Josemaría Escrivá
