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Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 202

202 BASIC DUTIES OF LEGIONARIES CHAPTER 33
Christianity. Unless the True Light is made to shine before
men through numerous and conspicuous rays of that Light,
that is, by practical examples of real Christian living, there is
not only the danger but the certainty that it will not be
reflected in the common standards of Catholics. These may
sink to the minimum compatible with keeping out of hell.
This would mean that religion had been stripped of its noble
and unselfish character—in other words, made the ridiculous
opposite to what it is supposed to be, and therefore capable of
attracting nobody and holding nobody.
Duty means discipline. Being always on duty means
unrelaxed discipline. Therefore, one’s speech, and dress, and
manner, and conduct, however simple they may be, must
never be such as to disedify. Persons will look for fault in
those whom they observe to be active in the cause of religion.
Failings, which in others would hardly attract notice, will in a
legionary be considered disgraceful, and will largely spoil his
efforts to do good to others. Nor is this unreasonable. Is it not
just to require a goodly standard from those who are urging
others on to higher things?
But there must be here, as in all things, right reason. Those
who are well-intentioned must not be deterred from apostolic
effort by the sense of their own deficiencies. For that would
mean the end of all apostleship. Neither are they to think that
perhaps it would be hypocritical for them to counsel a
perfection which they do not possess. “No,” says St. Francis
de Sales, “it is not being a hypocrite to speak better than we
act. If it were, Lord God! where would we be? We would have
to remain silent.”
“The Legion of Mary aims simply at the living of normal
Catholicism. We say ‘normal’; we do not say ‘average’. In these days
there is a tendency to think that the ‘normal’ Catholic is one who
practises his religion altogether for his own sake without taking any
active interest in the salvation of his brethren. To judge thus would
be to caricature the real Catholic, and indeed Catholicism itself.
Average Catholicism is not normal Catholicism. It would seem to be
necessary to subject to a close scrutiny, to a process of revision, this
prevalent notion of ‘good Catholic’ or ‘practising Catholic’. One is
not a Catholic if one falls below a certain apostolic minimum, and
this indispensable minimum, on which will depend the Last
Judgement, is not being reached by the mass of so-called practising
Catholics. Therein is a tragic situation; therein lies a fundamental
mis understanding.” (Cardinal Suenens: La Théologie de l’Apostolat)