Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion [1908]

[Stone]

Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion - 1908



FIFTY-SECOND OBJECTION. A CHRISTIAN LIFE IS TOO TIRESOME. IT IS TOO MELANCHOLY. TO DEPRIVE ONESELF OF EVERY THING, BE AFRAID OF EVERY THING, WHAT A LIFE!

Answer. Too tiresome, eh? What do you know about a Christian life? Gently, gently, my good friend! Do not be frightened before you are hurt. A Christian life does not oblige you to "deprive yourself of every thing, and be afraid of every thing." You exaggerate the thing; if the Gospel is a yoke, our Lord Jesus Christ, who imposed it on us, declared Himself that "this yoke is sweet, and this burden light."

You know, I dare say, some pious Christians? Do they look so very depressed, so very gloomy or unhappy?

All those whom I know, on the contrary, have a peculiar expression of peacefulness and joy on their countenances; the very sight of them is pleasant.

I do not, indeed, deny, that to be a really good Christian, it is necessary to keep strict watch over oneself, and shun certain evil or dangerous pleasures. I do not deny that the struggle of the will against evil passions is often a difficult one.

But find, if you can, a condition without sacrifices or struggles! To learn your trade, to make your living, must you not give yourself trouble, and a great deal of trouble?

Do not even our amusements compel us to impose some sacrifices on ourselves?

And yet we require that the chief, the most important, the only needful thing, namely, the work of our eternal salvation, should cost nothing! It is impossible.

The world beholds Christians praying, doing penance, imposing restraints on themselves, giving of their means to the poor, stifling their passions, depriving themselves of sensual gratifications, and doing such and such things which make this life rigorous and disagreeable in their eyes.

But this is only the outer rind. Look within, and you will see a heart generous and full of joy, which renders easy, even agreeable, these sacrifices so difficult in appearance.

A good son, who deprives himself of something for his mother's sake, is he not happy in his self-imposed privations?

Christian piety changes into sweetness what is bitter in the practice of duty; like the vital forces of plant life which change into honey some of the bitter juices which they extract from the earth.

Try, and you will find it so. We must experience these things, words cannot make them understood by those who have not experience.

For this, you have but to carry back your thoughts to the days of your childhood. There are few men who have not felt the happiness of the love of God at the great and solemn moment of their first communion. You were happy then! and why? Because you were pure and innocent, more given to good things; in a word, because you were a Christian.

Be one again, and you will be happy again. The God of your childhood is not changed, as you, alas! are; He still loves you, and awaits the return of the prodigal son. Be not afraid of Him; He is the good Saviour, the refuge of repentant sinners. "Never," he has said to us, "will I reject him that cometh to me."

Take this gentle and light yoke of a Christian life, and you will find rest, peace of mind, true joy in this world, and after your death eternal joy in Paradise.