Page 77 - 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 76

76 THE EXTERNAL AIMS OF THE LEGION CHAPTER 12
whole people putting its faith into practice, and hence as a
matter of course, solving its problems. Who can doubt that
such a nation would be a shining light to the world, so that
the world would come to sit at its feet for the purpose of
learning.
Now, it is unquestionable that the Legion possesses the
power of making the laity vitally interested in their religion,
and of communicating an ardent idealism to those who come
under its influence, so that they tend to forget their worldly
divisions, distinctions and antagonisms, and are animated
with the desire to labour for and love all mankind. This
idealism, being rooted in religion, is not a mere sentiment. It
makes the individual think in terms of service, it elicits great
sacrifices, it reaches heights of heroism, and it does not
evaporate.
Why? The reason lies in the motive. Power must have a
source. The Legion has a compelling motive for that service of
the community. It is that Jesus and Mary were citizens of
Nazareth. They loved that town and their country with a
religious devotion, for to the Jews faith and fatherland were
so divinely intertwined as to be but one. Jesus and Mary lived
the common life of their locality with perfection. Every
person and thing there was an object of deepest interest to
them. It would be impossible to conceive them as indifferent
or neglectful in any respect.
Today the world is their country and each place is their
Nazareth. In a baptised community they are bound more
intensely to the people than they were to their own blood-
kindred. But their love has now to issue through the Mystical
Body. If its members exert themselves in this spirit to serve
the place in which they live Jesus and Mary will move
through that place shedding their beneficial influences not
only on souls but on the surroundings. There will be material
betterment; problems will shrink. Nor is true betterment to be
gained from any other source.
This attention to Christian duty in each locality would add
up to patriotism for the nation. This word denotes uncharted
territory, for what is true patriotism? There is no map or
model of it in the world. An approximation is the devotion
and self-sacrifice which develop during a war. But this is
motivated by hate more than by love, and appropriately it is