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91.1
First Point: Regarding our Superiors
It is an obligation for you to act toward your superiors as toward
God himself.[i]
Such is the advice given you by the Apostle. Since you have a body with
senses and because God's interior guidance does not suffice to lead you to
him, you need guides who direct you through your senses. This is why God
has given you superiors whose duty it is to hold God's place in your
regard and to guide you on the way to heaven externally, as God guides you
internally.
How have you acted during this year toward your superiors? Have you
looked upon them as God's ministers who have been given to you by him and
hold his place, since it is only through the authority that God has
entrusted to them and shared with them that they have a right to guide you
and command you?[ii]
Is it with this motive that you have been submissive to their guidance?
During
this year have you been dependent on your superiors, as you depend on God?
With this conviction have you felt obliged to obey them in all things, and
as you believe you must obey God, who has said: Who hears you, hears me.[iii]
Have you been firmly convinced in the depths of your heart that all they
tell you is on the part of God, or to say it better, that it is God
himself who is telling you? From this day onward, adopt these dispositions
toward your superiors.
91.2
Second Point: Regarding your Brothers
Perhaps you have not reflected sufficiently during this year on the
obligation that you have to be completely united with your Brothers. Yet
this is one of the principal obligations of your state, because you are
all brothers,[iv]
as Jesus Christ says in the holy Gospel.
The first reason why there is sometimes little union in a community
is that some wish to place themselves above others on the basis of some
human reasoning. This is why Our Lord says to his apostles that none of
them should either call himself or let himself be called teacher, because
they had but one teacher, who was Jesus Christ.[v]
Our Lord says that the one who believes himself to be the greatest among
you, or who really is, must even consider himself and look upon himself as
the least of all.[vi]
Examine whether you have acted this way during the past year toward your
Brothers.
If
you have experienced any ill feeling toward any of them, think of what
Moses said to the two Israelites in his day who were giving trouble to one
another and quarreling,[vii] that they are our
brothers, and, as Saint Paul says, we must support one another in charity.[viii]
Pay attention to this word, support, which he uses; it shows you
that we must suffer from one another. This is why in another place he says
bear each others' burdens.[ix] Each one has his burdens,
and ordinarily it is not exactly the one who has them who carries them,
for he does not feel their weight; it is the others' burdens he has to
carry, and so each one must carry willingly and charitably the burdens of
the others, if he wishes to keep peace with them. This is what Saint Paul
frequently exhorts us to do in his epistles.[x]
Is this how you have acted during this year? Union in a community
is a precious gem, which is why Our Lord so often recommended it to his
apostles before he died.[xi]
If we lose this, we lose everything. Preserve it with care, therefore, if
you want your community to survive.
91.3
Third Point: Regarding your Students
The first thing you owe your students is edification and good
example. Have you applied yourselves earnestly to the practice of virtue
with the intention of edifying your disciples? Have you reflected that you
should be their models of the virtues you wish them to practice?
Have you acted this year as good teachers should? You should have
taught them their religion; did you apply yourself sufficiently to this
during the year? Have you looked upon this task as your principal duty in
their regard? Do they know their religion well? If they are ignorant of
it, or if they do not know it perfectly, is it not due to your negligence?
Have you been careful to teach them the maxims and practices of the
holy Gospel and to see that they practice them? Have you suggested to them
practices appropriate to their age and condition? All these matters of
instruction should have often been the subject for your reflections and
you should have studied how to succeed with them. A teacher who has piety
in his heart, says the Wise Man, will bring forth wisdom;[xii]
that is, he will procure wisdom for himself and at the same time he will
make those wise whom he instructs.
Have you taught those under your guidance the other matters which
are part of your duty, such as reading, writing, and all the rest, with
all the attention possible? If that has not been the case during this
year, you will give God a big account, not only for your time, but also
for the food and all that has been furnished for your livelihood, since
that was the intention of the assignment for which your needs were
provided. Take proper measures for the future on all these matters, which
are important.
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