It is not our mission to make truth triumph, but only to testify for it. It’s God’s part, through the Holy Spirit, to convict.
“The second Lubac (Note 1) quotation, and the one I treasure even more, is this: ‘I do not have to win the world, even for Christ: I have to save my soul. That is what I must always remember, against the temptation of success in the apostolate. And so I will guard myself against impure means. It is not my mission to make truth triumph, but to testify for it.’
“God will handle the rest. He’s good at that. We do have obligations in the world, duties that deny us the convenience of silence in the public square or escaping today’s conflicts by hiding in the hills. As a bishop 1,600 years ago, Augustine stayed with his people, encouraging, inspiring, and comforting them, even with an enemy at the gates of his city and the Roman world falling apart. Likewise today, we need to do whatever we can, however modest and wherever life places us, to encourage our friends in Jesus Christ and to make the world a better place in the light of the Gospel. God asks nothing more of us, but also nothing less. And we’re not alone. We’re never alone (Note2). Nor, with fellow pilgrims on the road, are we ever powerless.”
Adapted from Things Worth Dying For, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
- Cardinal Henri de Lubac (1896 – 1991)
- And lo, I will be with you always, even unto the end of the age. Jesus Christ. Circa 33 AD