RELATIONS
22. The Christian not only lives with himself and with his family ; but necessarily he has fréquent intercourse with his fellow-beings. Hence numerous and various duties, which the great apostle sums up in thèse short words : Render to ail men their dues :
reddile omnibus débita (Rom. XIII. 7.). By willing that man should live in society, God lias thereby willed ail that is necessary for that order of things : there is no power but from God : non est potestas nisi a Deo (Rom. XIII. 1.). Ail obédience, ail tribute, ail fear, ail justice, as well as ail rights, are rigorous conséquences of this fact established by divine wisdom.
23. The Holy Ghost in the book of Wisdom (ch. VI), describes the duties of those who govern the multitude : Understand that power is given you by the Most High, who will examine your works, and search ont your thoughls : because, being ministers of his kingdom, you hâve not kept the law of justice, nor walked according to the will of God. Therefore horribly and speedily will he appear to you : for a most severe judgment shall be for them that bear rule. The Christian, far from being puffed up by his authority, finds therein a subject of fear. The holy king David, amid the splendors and occupations of the kingdom, had his soûl continually in his hands and forgot not the lato of God : anima mea in manibus meis semper et legem tuam non sum oblitus (Ps. CXVIII. 109.) ; he was in constant fear for the salvation of his soûl, and took as his guide the law of God. He implored the divine liglit, saying with confidence : Thou art my lamp, 0 Lord ; and thou, 0 Lord, wilt enlighten my darkness : tu lucerna mea, Domine, et ta illuminabis tenebras meas (II Kings, XXII. 29.).
The holy man Job says : I fear ail my works Icnowing, 0 God, that thou dost not spare the offender : Verebar omnia opéra mea, sciens quia non parceres delinquenti (Job, IX. 28.). In like manner the Christian, invested with great or little authority, fears and respects ail his acts. Ile fears, because of the account he must, one day, render : redde ralionem (Luke, XVI. 2.) ; lie respects, for he knows, as St. Paul expresses it, t liât he is the minisler of God, serving unto this pur*
pose : ministri Dei sunt, in hoc ipsum servientes (Rom. XIII. 6.). He never loses sight of the oath by which, in présence of the divine majesty, he has bound himself faithfully to fulfil his duty, and to avoid ail injustice and ail neglect.
24. Let every soûl, says St. Paul, le subject to higlier powers ; omnis anima potestatibus sublimioribus subdita sit (Rom. XIII. 1.). The Christian, accordingly, who lives by faith, shows to the depositaries of authority the respect and obédience due to them, for he knows that there is no power but from God, and that the various degrees of power are ordained of God ; quœ autem sunt, a Deo ordinatœ sunt. He obeys them not only for wrath, bat also for conscience sake ; non solum pr opter iram, sed etiam pr opter conscientiam (ibidem). What the law commands he willingly fulfîls ; from what it forbids he refrains : and this obédience he looks upon as an homage rendered to the suprême dominion of the divine majesty, which has thus provided for the order and peace that form the happiness and security of citizens. He knows of no limits to this obédience, but the obédience due to God's law, and then, like the apostles and the martyrs, he says : ive ought to obey God rather ihan men : obedire oportet Deo magis quam hominibus (Acts, V. 29.). Obédience, thus enlightened and supernaturalized by faith, is neither servile, nor humiliating ; it partakes of the high and noble motive which animâtes it, and it shall, one day, be rewarded by a crown of justice and of immortal glory.
The true Christian loves his country ; this sentiment, which nature has instilled into his heart, religion approves, and sanctifies. Even did he but give the example of respect for justice and for order, he would render immense service to his country ; but faith goes further still, for it inspires him generous sacrifices, it infuses with his heart unbounded dévotion to this great
cause ; the true Christian, who lives by faith, will, in an emergency, repeat the noble words of Judas Machabeus : Let us die manfully for our brethren ; Moriamur in virtute nostra propter fratres nostros (I. Mach. IX. 10.).
25. It now remains for us briefly to lay before y ou, O. D. B. B., the duties of the Christian towards his neighbor. Having enjoined on christians to render to ail men their dues, reddite omnibus débita (Rom. XIII, 7), the Apostle adds: AU the cornmandments, which relate to the neighbor, are comprised in this word : thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself ; si quod est aliud mandatwn, in hoc verbo instauratur : Diliges proximum tuum sicut teipsum ( Rom. XIII. 9. ) . Of this the Apostle immediately gives the obvious reason : whoever loves his neighbor refrains from doing evil to him, and seeks, on the contrary, to procure him ail possible good, for love is the fulfilling of the law : plenitudo legis est dileciio ( ibidem 10. ). It is the répétition of the precept given by our Lord Himself in the Gospel ( Matt. VU. 12.), and by the holy man Tobias, in the admirable instructions which lie addressed to his son (Tobias IV. 16.).
26. We wish our rights, our fortune, our réputation and even our touchiness to be respected : let us respect also the rights, the fortune, the réputation, the touchiness of the neighbor. ïhus, by an admirable alliance, the charity we owe the neighbor finds, in our own heart, the clear and précise rule of strict justice.
Far from you therefore, O. D. B. B., those calumnies, those unjust and ruinous law suits, those contracts, wherein equity is violated, that usury, which cries for vengeance before the Lord, those fraudulent bankruptcies, wherein is sought the wliole benefit of the law without respecting the conditions thereof. This crying injustice proceeds from pride and sensuality. Thepr'ule of life, as Ht. John ([ Ep. II. 16.) style*
it, forraing an infernal conspiracy with the concupiscence of eyes, drags men into unbridled luxury, into extravagant expenses, into that cupidity which, according to St. Paul (I. Tim. VI. 9...), is the root of ail evils, destroys faith, and ensnares its unhappy victims into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which draw them into destruction and perdition. He even adds that covetousness, or the inordinate désire of money, is a serving of idols and that no coveious person hath inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God ; idolorum servitus, non habet hereditatem in regno Christi et Dei (Eph., V. 5.).
Charity, which teaches us to do justice to our neighbor, will likewise make us find, in our own heart, alms giving, which relieves our fellow- créatures, patience, which bears their faults, meekness, which wins their affection, and ail the social virtues, the practice of which tends to alleviate the rigors of our exile in this vale of tears : it is the fulfilling of the law, ard no duty can possibly be imagined, but finds therein its principle and its rule.
You shall therefore love, O. D. B. B., y ou shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with y our whole soûl, and with your ivhole mind. This is the greatest and the flrst commandaient. And the second is like to this : you shall love your neighbor as y our self On thèse two commandmenis dependeth the whole law and the prophets : in his duobns mandatis universalex pendet et prophetœ (Matt. XXII, 37 ).
