Page 64 - 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 63

CHAPTER 10 THE LEGION APOSTOLATE 63
formed. And so he classified his priests according to the results
which their zeal and their abilities had obtained on this
point.” (Chautard: The Soul of the Apostolate, 4, l.f.)
“The pastor’s task is not limited to individual care of the
faithful. It extends by right also to the formation of a genuine
Christian community. But if a community spirit is to be
properly cultivated, it must embrace not only the local church
but the universal Church. A local community ought not
merely to promote the care of the faithful within itself, but
should be imbued with the missionary spirit and smooth the
path to Christ for all men. But it must regard as its special
charge those under instruction and the newly converted who
are gradually educated in knowing and living the Christian
life.” (PO 6)
“God-made-Man found it necessary to leave his Mystical Body
upon earth. Otherwise, his work would have ended on Calvary. His
death would have merited salvation for the human race, but how
many men could have gained heaven without the Church to bring
them life from the cross? Christ identifies himself with the priest in a
special way. The priest is like a supplementary heart pumping on its
way the supernatural life-blood to souls. He is an essential part of the
spiritual transmission system in Christ’s Body. If he fails, the system is
blocked, and those who depend upon him do not receive the life that
Christ intends them to receive. The priest should be to his people
what Christ is to the Church, within due limits. Christ’s members are
an extension of himself, not merely employees, followers, adherents,
supporters. They have his life. They share his activity. They should
have his outlook. Priests must be one with Christ in every possible
respect. Christ found it necessary to form a spiritual body for himself;
the priest should do the same. He should form for himself members
who are one with him. Unless a priest has living members, formed by
him, united with him, his work will be reduced to negligible
dimensions. He will be isolated and helpless. “The eye cannot say to
the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I
have no need of you’.” (1 Cor 12:21)
So that if Christ has made the Mystical Body the principle of his
way, his truth, his life to souls, this same order precisely operates
through the new Christ, the priest. If he does not apply his function
to a degree which is veritably that full building of the Mystical Body
referred to in the Epistle to the Ephesians (4:12, a text usually
translated by ‘edification of the faithful’), it will be in diminished
measure that the divine life will enter souls and then issue fruitfully
from them.
Moreover, the priest himself will be left deprived by virtue of the
fact that though it is the mission of the head to minister life to the
body, it is no less a fact that the head lives by the life of the body,
increasing with its increase, sharing in its weakness if it wanes.