Faith and Charity

My dear children, not long ago I told you that charity without faith is not enough to maintain among people a social order capable of making them happy. I should have said that charity is impossible without faith. Actually, you can find generous impulses even among persons without a religion, but that austere charity that  is practiced only through  self-denial, through  a continual sacrifice of all selfish interest, can occur only if there is faith to inspire it, for nothing except faith can enable us to bear the cross of this life with courage and perseverance.

Yes, my children, it is in vain that, eager for gratification, people delude themselves about their destiny in this world by pretending that it is permissible for them to concern themselves solely with their own happiness. Of  course, God  has created us to be happy in eternity; meanwhile, earthly life ought to be used exclusively for our moral improvement, which is easier to accomplish with the help of the physical organs and the material world. Without taking into account the ordinary ups and downs of life, the diversity of your tastes, your tendencies and your needs, earthly life is also a way of perfecting yourselves by practicing charity, for it is only through mutual concessions and sacrifices that you can maintain harmony among such diverse elements.

You would be correct, however, in stating that people are meant to be happy in this world if they would seek happiness not in material pleasures but in the good. The history of Christianity tells of martyrs who went joyfully to their deaths. In order to be Christians in your society today, neither death by martyrdom nor the sacrifice of your life is needed, but only and merely the sacrifice of your selfishness, pride and vanity. You shall triumph if charity inspires you and if faith upholds you.

A Protector Spirit (Krakow, 1861)