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40 THE DUTY OF LEGIONARIES TOWARDS MARY CHAPTER 6
before my Judge, and therefore perhaps have to go for a vast
time into Purgatory?” To this, a commentator quaintly
answers: “No, not at all, since Mary is present at the
Judgment!” The thought contained in this remark is profound.
But the objection to making the Consecration is usually
due less to a purely selfish outlook than to perplexity. There is
difficulty in understanding how those things for which one is
bound in duty to pray, such as one’s family, one’s friends,
one’s country, the Pope, etc., will fare if one makes the
unreserved gift of one’s spiritual treasures. Let all these
misgivings be put aside, and let the Consecration be boldly
made. Everything is safe with Our Lady. She is the guardian of
the treasures of God himself. She is capable of being the
guardian of the concerns of those who place their trust in her.
So, together with the assets of your life, cast all its liabilities —
its obligations and duties — into that great sublime heart of
hers. In her relations with you, she acts in a manner as if she
had no other child but you. Your salvation, your
sanctification, your multiple needs are peremp torily present
to her. When you pray for her intentions, you yourself are her
first intention.
But here, where one is being urged to make sacrifice, is not
the place to seek to prove that there is no loss whatever in the
transaction. For to prove this would sap the very foundations
of the offering and deprive it of the character of sacrifice on
which its value depends. It will suffice to recall that once
upon a time a multitude of ten or twelve thousand were in a
desert, and were hungry. (Jn 6:1- 14) In all that number only
one person had brought food with him. What he possessed
amounted to five loaves and two fishes and he was asked to
give them up for the common good; and he did so with
willingness. Then those few loaves and fishes were blessed
and broken and distributed to the multitude. And in the end
all that immense throng did eat, until they could eat no
more; and among them he who had given the original seven
items of food. And yet what remained over filled twelve
baskets, full and to overflowing! Now supposing that
individual had said: “What good will these few loaves and
fishes be to so great a multitude? Besides, I require them for
the members of my family here with me and oppressed by
hunger. I cannot give.” But no! He gave and he and his people