Happy is the priest who offers up his whole liberty to his Master, and restricts it generously in all his contact with the world. If we must go into it, we need to have continually in our ears the words Quid hic agis, Elia? The priest who is seldom seen in society is the priest whom men desire most to have beside them when they die. S. Jerome says of priests: Si quis sæpe invitatus ad convivia non recusat, facile contemnitur. Our Lord did indeed go to the house of Simon, and to the marriage in Cana. But everywhere He was the Son of God. He went nowhere but by divine charity. If we use our liberty for Him as He used His for us, we shall live in the world to save it, but live out of the world to save ourselves. Priests and pastors have a special need of protection: and also a special promise of safety so long as they use their liberty for His sake with generous abnegation of self. "Holy Father, keep them in Thy name whom Thou hast given Me. While I was with them I kept them in Thy name. Those whom Thou hast given me have I kept; and none of them is lost but the son of perdition. I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil."[1]
- ↑ S. John xvii. 11, 12, 15.
