These World Crises are Crises of Saints

This past Wednesday (01/05), I was part of a panel discussion on the issue of the Church's teaching on Labor and the rights and duties attached to Labor, as expressed in the social doctrine of the Catholic Church. We focused on the encyclical Rerum Novarum by Leo XIII. The panel consisted of four laymen of various expertise, as well as an SVD priest. I was the least qualified to contribute anything on this topic, so I stayed silent for the most part and allowed the others to speak. We focused a lot of attention on Socialism, and its uglier cousin Communism, and the weaknesses of Capitalism as well. My major contribution was on three points:

1. According to St. Francis de Sales, it is a sin against charity for a married man to give up his entire wealth to the poor. This is so because he has a duty to provide for his wife and children.
2. We have a right to private property, and this is so because we have a right to a just remuneration for our services and goods produced as a result of labor, and private property is the remuneration/wage in a different form. The more money we make, surpassing the money necessary to sufficiently take care of the family's needs and comforts, then we have less right to that money, and more duty to share it with others.
3. We might not have solved the world's problems that day, or by our next session, but it was said by a Saint, whose name escaped me at the moment, that the crises in the world was a crisis of saints. We are laity, and not churchmen, we are citizens and not politicians, so we may not have much direct influence to fix the problems in the church and the governmental bodies. However, we do have access to our own souls and the souls of those around us. If the entire world were made up of saints, we wouldnt have any problems. So, make sure you are always in the state of grace, make use of the sacraments, practice the Christian virtues, do apostolate with family, friends, and even enemies, and this is certainly something we CAN do. But, we don't. All this talk about the "Spirit of Vatican II", and the laity have largely ignored one of its most important documents, the one on the laity (Apostolicam Actuositatem).

Last night (01/08), I was speaking to a dear friend of mine, Roni. She had made some points about our role in transforming the world as lay people. She was saying that the real work is the interior life, and sadly, even those who think they've got all the theology right, don't take much effort in the reformation of their own lives and are more concerned with the theological reformation of others. So, I was looking up quotes on doing apostolate in the world by St. Josemaria Escriva. I clicked on some random entry in The Way. When I started reading it to her, a chill went down my spine, because another example of a "Laurence moment" occured. I could not recall who said that the crises in the world is a crisis of saints. Now I know.

A secret, an open secret: these world crises are crises of saints.

God wants a handful of men 'of his own' in every human activity. And then... 'pax Christi in regno Christi — the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ'.

God Bless,
Laurence G.