Holiness is crucial to the fruitfulness of the apostolate. St. Faustina Kowalska wrote, “I am striving for sanctity, because in this way I shall be useful to the Church.”
During a three-day retreat, Our Lord instructed St. Faustina: “My daughter, I want to instruct you on how you are to rescue souls through sacrifice and prayer. You will save more souls through prayer and suffering than will a missionary through his teachings and sermons alone. I want to see you as a sacrifice of living love, which only then carries weight before Me … Outwardly, your sacrifice must look like this: silent, hidden, permeated with love, imbued with prayer. I demand, My daughter, that your sacrifice be pure and full of humility, that I may find pleasure in it. I will not spare My grace, that you may be able to fulfill what I demand of you.”
Father Patrick Gearon pointed out that God does not usually go to the great and the grand, but to the simple and the humble.
He wrote, “The path of regularity and obscurity is the surest road to solid virtue. Self-love likes outward show and will go through endless pains to gain it. Works of mercy on a grand scale – visiting prisons, preaching, and even the establishing of religious institutions – these are comparatively easy work when put alongside of exactitude in our daily duties, the observance of petty rules and regulations, the preserving of a modest exterior which denotes the presence of God. Because all these things are a matter of endurance, of perpetual constraint, and hence call for stoutest heroism. There is no dignity about them to spur us on, no plaudits of men which will act as a lever to us. They are done purely for the love of God and bring joy in abundance to His Divine Heart.”
We tend to measure success of the apostolate by numbers, but Sacred Scriptures states: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord” (Is 55:8), and “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1Sm 16:7).
St. Vincent de Paul said, “We ought not to dwell on the gift of converting souls nor on whatever other exterior talents we may have, for they are not ours; we are only the bearers of them, and even with these gifts we can lose our souls. For this reason, no one should flatter himself, nor take any complacency in himself, nor conceive any self-esteem because God works great things through him; he should rather humble himself and acknowledge that he is but a poor instrument which God deigns to employ.”
St. Josemaria Escriva observed: “The world admires only the spectacular sacrifice, because it does not realize the value of the sacrifice that is hidden and silent.”
Father Adolphe Tanqueray wrote, “Humility of heart requires that instead of wishing for and seeking glory or honors, we be satisfied with our situation and prefer a hidden life to an exalted position: Love to be unknown and to be reputed as nothing.”
Meditating on the Third Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary, Father Thomas Feeley wrote, “Christ warned us about doing our good works to be seen by others, as the Pharisees did, lest we lose our heavenly reward (Mt 6:1). We need to reflect on this warning because many of us want to see our effort crowned with success and we like to receive praise even if we don’t seek it. Yet if one person sows and another reaps (Jn 4:38), the sower does not see his labours bear fruit. He must be content to do the labor and trust that God will bring good from it. During his life on earth Christ was not crowned with success but with thorns. His life and work bore fruit after his death when he was raised to life and the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples. We must be content to follow in his footsteps.”
天主喜愛一個謙遜的心
宗徒事業完滿果實最關重要的是成聖。聖傅天娜寫道：『我奮力成聖，因為這樣我可以有用於教會。』
在一個三天的退省中，我主告訴傅天娜說：『我的女兒，我要指引你怎樣以犧牲和祈禱去拯救靈魂。你以犧牲和受苦拯救的靈魂會比一位傳教士只憑傳教和講道的多。我願看見你一生活的愛的犧牲，只有它在我面前更有份量…外表看來，你的犧牲應該看似這樣：靜默的，隱蔽的，滲透著愛的，充滿著祈禱的。我要求，我的女兒，你的犧牲是純潔，並充滿謙遜的，那裡我會找到喜樂。你若能滿全我的要求，我不會吝惜我的聖寵。』
Patrick Gearon神父指出天主一般不會到偉大和重要的人那裡，但到簡單，謙虛的人那裡。他寫道：『正常的和鮮為人知的路徑是最肯定達至牢固德行的道路。自私的愛一如一己的表演會踏入無止境的痛苦去尋獲它。在大程度上，重要的愛德工作—探訪囚犯，傳教，甚至建立教會機構—都是一些比較容易的工作，當它們對比於我們每天責任的要求，遵守瑣碎的規則和條例，維持一個謙虛的外表代表天主的臨在。因為所有的這一切都有關持久，長遠的約束，所以它要求你能有一頑強的英雄本質。沒有尊嚴去鞭策我們，也沒有他人的讚揚去抬舉。做到這些的都只是為對天主單純的愛，為祂至聖的心奉上大量的喜樂。』
我們傾向於以數目衡量宗徒事業的成敗，但聖經謂：『因為我的思念不是你們的思念，你們的行徑也不是我的行徑：上主的斷語。（依55:8）』和『因為天主的看法人不同：人看外貌，上主卻看人心。（撒上16:7）』
聖雲先說：『我們不應該滿足於能夠使靈魂皈依或外在其他可能的天賦，因為他們並不是我們的；我們只是攜帶著它們，甚至擁有這些恩賜，我們仍會失落我們的靈魂。為這個原因，沒有人能夠自我奉承，自滿或作任何自尊的構想，因為天主通過他作了偉大的事；反之他應該謙遜自己，和承認自己只是天主設計，採用的一件粗劣的工具。』
聖施禮華觀察到：『世界只羨慕壯觀的犧牲，因為它不能明白隱蔽的和靜默犧牲的價值。』
Adolphe Tanqueray神父寫道：『謙遜的心要求的不是渴望找到光榮、榮耀，但自滿於我們隱蔽的現況遠較於被受讚揚：喜愛不為人認識，譽為無物。』
在玫瑰經痛苦三端的默想，Thomas Feeley神父寫道：『基督警告我們有關做好事要為他人所知，一如法利塞人一樣，唯恐我們失落我們天國的報酬（瑪竇6:1）。我們要回想這警告，因為很多的我們願意見到我們的努力成功加冕，雖然我們沒有去謀取，但我們希望得到讚許。儘管一個人去播種而另一個人去收獲（若4:38），播種者見不到他勞力的果實。他應該為他的勞力滿足並相信天主會帶來好處。基督在世上的生命中並沒有因祂的成功被加冕，卻冕以刺冠。祂的生命和工作在祂死後當祂復活和聖神降臨於門徒時帶來果實。我們能夠跟隨祂的步伐，我們都應該滿足。』
