Page 297 - 聖母軍團員手冊（英文版，2014年5月-2022年1月更新版）

Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 292

292 CARDINAL POINTS OF THE LEGION APOSTOLATE CHAPTER 39
(b) Those who expect to receive, and are disappointed,
become aggrieved and hence impervious to legionary
influence.
(c) Even among those who are subjects for relief, the Legion
will not accomplish spiritual good by giving. Let the Legion
leave this to those other agencies whose special work it is, and
which have a special grace for it. Certainly, legionaries will
have no grace for it, because thereby they break their rule.
The praesidium which errs in this way will find itself involved
in grievous complications, and will never bring anything but
sorrow to the Legion.
Individual legionaries may plead the duty of giving charity
according to one’s means, and may urge that they do not
desire to give relief as legionaries, but in their private
capacities. Analysis of this contention will indicate what
complications must inevitably arise. Take the case — and it is
the usual one — of someone who did not indulge in such
personal relief-giving prior to joining the Legion. In his
rounds, he comes across persons whom he deems to be in
need in some way or another. He refrains from giving
anything on the day of the official Legion visit, but goes some
other day “as a private individual” and gives. Surely he is
breaking the Legion rule as to the giving of material relief,
and surely the double visitation only covers a quibble? He
visited in the first instance as a legionary. The cases came to
his know ledge as a legionary. The recipients know him as a
legionary; and certainly they do not enter into the quibble. To
them, the transaction is simply one of Legion relief-giving,
and the Legion agrees that they judge rightly.
Be it remembered that the disobedience or the indiscretion
of a single member in this direction may compromise the
whole praesidium. The name of relief-giving is easily won. It
does not require a hundred instances. A couple suffice.
If a legionary, for some reason, wishes to help in a particular
case, why not save the Legion from all complications by giving
anony mously through a friend, or through some appropriate
agency? Reluctance to do this, in the circumstances, would
seem to indicate that the legionary is seeking an earthly rather
than a heavenly reward for the act of charity.