Meditations

2. But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians 6.14. When do we show that we love the world? When we are jealous of authority, when we love a reputation that we are not worthy of, when we spend idle time in the company of others, when we look for comforts that magnify the flesh, when we are weak and faint-hearted in our Christian practices, when we do not take care to study the truths of the gospel. So the world lives in us. But the truth is that we desire to live in it, since we so strongly desire for others to love us, and we are so afraid that others might forget us. How blessed and happy was St. Paul who was able to say, The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. What a blessed thing it is to know how worthy of contempt the world is. It is making a very small sacrifice to God to sacrifice the world's fleeting illusions. How weak men are when they do not despise the world as it deserves, and how much men are to be pitied if they believe they have given up a great deal by taking leave of the world. Clergy, religious, or laymen seeking retirement from the world are only following that commitment more cautiously than the rest. Indeed, all of us Christians, through our baptism, have renounced the world. We are in search of the safe harbor if we turn and flee the raging storm.