Many times, we live normally for ten long years, winning spiritual patrimonies in order to live only ten fleeting minutes in an extraordinary and exceptional way. These are the climaxes of life, in which we are called to account in the checking of intransferable responsibilities which, not infrequently, we perceive intuitively in shedding tears which presage bitter struggles.

We learn from day to day, little by little, for years on end, the detachment from ephemeral goods in order to expose ourselves to the task of greater detachment on brief moments; we experience, for various decades, the repetition, from one instant to another, of a trivial duty in order to test ourselves, our own perseverance, in the epilogue of some problem or other, apparently vulgar but of profound significance to our destiny; we acquire inner forces by living an entire incarnation in preparing ourselves for a demonstration of courage in one serious moment of testimony. . . .

Alpinists of evolution, dripping sweat from cliff to cliff, we climb the mountain of experience training ourselves to pass through the ravine which opens wide to us the yawning abyss of temptation; common students, in the curricula of existence, we store up precious knowledge in laborious courses of observation and work, in order to overcome the eliminatory test, at times, in a single day of sacrifice. . . .

We are always face to face with the examining board of the world since whenever we may go, we shall be summoned there to the confession of our faith and it is consequent moral value. The minute now vanishing is our invaluable opportunity; the place where we are is the amphitheater of our continuous lessons.

To walk without Jesus, therefore, in the human realms, is to feel that water does not quench thirst, food does not satisfy hunger, melody does not uplift, the page does not edify, the flower does not exhale perfume, the light does not give warmth. . . . Sheltered in Christ, however, we are all self-sufficient, since we have at our disposal the support, clarification and fortress in any afflicting crisis with which life may surprise us.

The breath which the certainty of rationalized faith affords us transcends all the ephemeral consolations we may derive from earthy advantages, seeing that it enables us to work without fatigue, to aid without effort, to suffer without resentment and to laugh while smothering a sob. Let us advance then by the standards of the Divine Master, without believing ourselves entitled to protest or curse, to stir up a tumult or censure.

Let us give up revindications, privileges, superficial rewards or honor, since it is urgent to aspire to the invisible medal of duty rightly done which shines forth in our consciences, to the crown of peace which crowns our thoughts and the carte-blanche of free will which extends our field of action to pure good.

Rejoice, then, if your faith is repeatedly analyzed in the intimacy of the home, combated in the place of work, flogged in the circle of friends, inspected in the social footlights or tested in the pallet of suffering . . . . Only by our cross of renunciation of the secular glories, with the serenity of abnegation and the smile of patience can we be recompensed by the triumph over ourselves on the road to Perfect Happiness.

Caíbar Schutel