Faith in the World

The Christian should not leave his faith aside in any circumstance. Non-sectarianism. Neutrality. Old myths that always try to seem new. Have you ever stopped to think how absurd it is to leave one's Catholicism aside on entering a university, a professional association, a cultural society, or parliament, like a man leaving his hat at the door? (St. Escriva, The Way). This attitude is equivalent to saying -- in politics, in business, in leisure or in entertainment, when I am with my friends, when it comes to choosing a school for my children -- that here in this situation God has nothing whatever to do with it; in these affairs my Christian faith must not exert any influence, for none of this comes from God or is ordained to God.

Nevertheless, the faith casts light on the whole of existence. Everything is ordained to God. But this ordination must respect the particular nature of each thing. It is not a matter of turning the world into one big sacristy, or homes into convents, or the economy into a benevolent institution. Without naive simplifications, the faith should inform a Christian's thought and action, because he should never in any circumstance, in any moment of the day cease to be a Christian and to behave and think as such.

In Conversation with God: Lent and Eastertide