Page 55 - pastoral-letters-sjm

St. Joseph Marello - 1895

generous offerings. "Pray for us, wrote St. Paul to the faithful of
Corinth, that the word of God may spread and bear fruit as it has
among you... On feast days put aside what each one will have
given in my absence so that when I return I may send it to
Jerusalem" (I Cor. XVI.1.2.3.). Therefore dearly beloved, let us
not forget that if, from the very beginning, our countries
received the benefit of the faith, through the grace of God and
without any merit on our part, it was through the ministry of
apostolic men along with the help of the prayers and sacrifices
of the faithful in other countries. May the example of these
generous people stimulate us to repay in the best way possible
our debt of gratitude, by cooperating in extending to other
peoples the benefits of the Redemption which we were
mercifully granted. Oh! how many people still stand in the
shadow of death; and how many abominations, how many
disorders and almost unbelievable crimes contaminate those
souls deprived of the light of faith; they are all the more in need
of compassion and help the less they are aware of their state.
In India, like in China, Japan, Tibet, and Mongolia, in those
vast regions thousands of idols are raised, and multitudes of
fanatical worshipers flock to their feet. In the heart of Africa,
what will our most daring travelers find? Innumerable
populations for whom a river, a tree, a stone, a bird, or a serpent
are the object of stupid and barbarian worship. The nomadic
tribes, those wandering families who live by hunting and
fishing, concealed in the forests of America or lost among the
waves of the great Ocean, what do they know of God, of their
souls, their past and their future? These brothers of ours live in
the darkest ignorance and barbarity, which is the cause of a long
series of horrible evils and vices which disfigure them. In a
certain sense, their condition is worse than that of beasts, since
there is no right, no bond of any sort that is respected among
them; where one also finds that indescribable state of

55