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Passion Sunday
Thoughts for the Week - Fr. R. Taouk
7th April 2019
The One Thing Necessary by Rev. Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange
The "one thing necessary" which Jesus spoke of to Martha and
Mary (Luke 10:40-42) consists in hearing the Word of God and
living by it. The interior life, thus conceived, is
something far more profound and more necessary in us than
intellectual life (that of being "learned") or the
cultivation of the sciences, than artistic or literary life,
than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great
scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have
no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the
study of their science as if God did not exist. In their
moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with
Him. Their life appears to be in certain respects the search
for the true and the good in a more or less definite and
restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and
intellectual pride that we may legitimately question whether
it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men,
and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human
activity which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths
of their souls live by God? It would seem not.
This shows that the interior life, or the life of the soul
with God, well deserves to be called the "one thing
necessary", since by it we tend to our last end and assure
our salvation. This last must not be too widely separated
from progressive sanctification, for it is the very way of
salvation.
There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to
be saved and that it is not necessary to be a Saint. It is
clearly not necessary to be a Saint who performs miracles
and whose sanctity is officially recognised by the Church.
To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is
identical with that of sanctity. There will be only Saints
in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death
or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven
unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity
of soul. Every sin though it should be venial, must be
effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or
remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision
of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves
Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total
remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it
would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified.
The Three Ages of the Interior Life.
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