Thinking with the cross

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Part of The Cross

Title: Thinking with the cross
extracted text: THINKING WITH THE CROSS Cross featurettes SERVING WITH GLADNESS A man was walking by a con struction job. He paused to ask the nearest workman. “What are you doing?” The man sighed. “Digging a hole!” he said, disgustedly. “Ev ery houT I’m here I shovel out dirt.” The workman went on with his work while his ques tioner stood by a moment won dering about his reply. Was the j-.b really so bad? His eyes 'rested on another man doing the same jub. He walked to his side thoughtfully. “What are you doing?” he asked. The man looked up surprised. His whole face lighted. “Why," he said, proudly, “I am digging thp foundations for a cathedral,” It is the spirit in which we perform our everyday tasks that decides whether we look upon them as hard labor, or enjoyable, heart-lifting service. For service, if we have learned to love it, is done joyfully and willingly, eagerly and easily. But labor is hard and monotonous, irksome and fatiguing. If you would take the strain and monotony out of the tasks you perform day in and day out, begin thinking of your work as a service of devo tion to a great cause. Our work should not mean drudgery, distaste and dullness. When it does, we have forgotten how to serve with gladness, how to enjoy our work and thus make it a success. The everyday work which we learn to perform today with a light heart and a glad, smiling face, in the spirit of devotion to a cause, will become a needed refuge and help in the time of trouble. How many great men have made their sorrow only an excuse to work harder to give the world something worthwhile. In so turning to the spiritual uplift of their work, they found their sorrow bearable. For to learn pleasure in work is to find contentment. Everyone of us is blessed if we have work to do. Inefficient, in competent people are not trusted with a job. If you have been given a work to perform, it is because someone has decided you 31 32 THE CliO&S were worthy of responsibility. When we see it as a privilege, serving with gladness is a natu ral result. WRONG DIAGNOSIS Like most violent reformers, Communists reform the wrong thing. They forget that there is no magic in the transfer of pro perty from a few Capitalists to a few Red CommissaTs. The cause of our ills is not in property, but in the person who owns it; hence there will never be a radical transformation of society unless there is a spiritual regeneration of persons, through a rebirth of charity and Justice. By outlawing Religion, Commun ism makes this impossible. Thinking that if we transfer private property to a few Red Commissars we will do away with economic injustice, greed and ex ploitation, is like thinking that if you build your house in Manila instead of Bulacan, it will neveT burn down I Communication of property does not end greed and injustice, for Communists can still struggle for the privilege of controlling that property. If wealth is acquired by the injustice of confiscation, is it logical to think that it will be distributed through the virtue of justice? Bank robbers do not betome philanthropists nor are murderers conspicuous for love of the poor! WATCH THAT HUNGER Ball rooms, bars, shows and other places of amusement all over the islands are over-crowd ed. The hunt for pleasure has reached fever pitch. It would be pleasant to be able to say that at last after years of terror and austerity during the war, people are again happy and gay. But such is not the case. The people who frequent these places are not really happy. Life to them is just a succes sion of amusement unfortunately interrupted by intervals of neces sary work and duty. They dislike the work and shirk the duty. Their days are divided into 8 hours of boredom in office, home or factory, 6 hours of pleasure seeking in dancehalls or bars, and a few hours of exhausted sleep to prepare them for another un satisfactory day. Poor misled people! Thej mistake pleasure for happiness. And they are heading the wrong way. Comes a time when this craving for pleasure will demand of them even what is sinful. Then they would turn in rebel lion against their Creator to satisfy themselves. To return to basic principles, parties and lawful pleasures aTe OCTOBER, 1948 38 desirable at times to break the routine of our work-a-day world. But the man who has made these the end-all and the be-all of his life, is miserable indeed. WHERE’S OUR DECENT PRESS CRUSADE? An enlightening number of the ACOLYTE magazine contains the Report of the National Organiza tion of Decent Literature. The Report reveals many things. First, the great need there was for the Decent Press Campaign. The huge number of magazines listed, and the titles they flaunt, disclose the existence of an evil that is as widespread as the social di seases and far more dangerous. The second thing that is re vealed by the Report, is the huge profit it derived from this traffic. The principal distributors of these magazines do a business of P330,000,000 a year! The third thing that is reveal ed is that the Decent Press Drive gets Tesults. A few weeks after its inception more than a dozen dirty publications went out of business. The publishers of many others became alarmed at the threat to their income and wrote to the Committee promising to introduce whatever reforms were necessary. Once upon a time we had our own Decent Press Crusade in the Islands. And as far as we know it too produced some consoling results. But has it gone the way of all “ningas cogon” organiza tions? The excesses of which our local papers and magazines have been, (and still are!) guilty in detailed writeups of sex crimes, in adver tising, especially of offensive theatrical productions, and the growing shamelessness of their comics (?), are fast convincing decent people that they are a serious threat to public morality. When will Catholics get serious about this assault upon Christian virtue? PIUS XI ON FILMS Everyone knows what damage is done to the soul by bad motion pictures. They are occasions of sins, they seduce young people along the ways of evil by glori fying the passions; they show life under a false light; they cloud ideals; they destroy pure love, respect for marriage and affec tion for the family. They are capable also of creating prejudi ces among individuals misunder standing among nations, among social classes, and among entire races. On the other hand, good motion pictures are capable of exercising a profoundly moral influence upon those who see them. In addition to affording recreation, they aTe able to arouse noble ideals of life, to communicate valuable concep tions, to impart better knowledge 34 THE CROSS of the history and beauties of the fatherland and other countries, to present truth and understand ing among nations, social classes and races, to champion the cause of justice, to give new life to the claims of virtue, to contribute positively to the genesis of a just social order in the world. —PIUS XI FORLORN By Federico Moreno The earthly light dies with a weary glance Upon the waves which in their foamy dance Toss up the cares of day, the gloom of night, The biting-pangs of fading, dying light. A silent cheek beams with the dimming glow To trace the somber shades, the evening flow, To feel the rush of darkness, rushing arm’d Unto her soul in struggle, poinards swarm’d Bears she the anguished stab of solitude, The cruel wound of painful interlude; A woman’s heart is doomed a thousand ways and one To die a thousand death and not be done. When St Leonard of Port Maurice was preaching a Mis sion, some of the wealthier ladies came to the sermon dressed in “air conditioned” gowns. He advocated a little more mod esty in dress, but they returned next night in similar costumes, and sat right beneath the pulpit. St Leonard announced a collection for the poor of the Paris and especially to buy clothing for “some young ladies who have come to the sermon, but haven’t enough clothing to cover their poor old shoulders.” -
Date: 1948
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