Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/492



486 CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY

away prudence, temperance, frugality, patience, and other correct, natural habits, no matter how much he may strive, he will never achieve prosperity. That is the reason why We have incessantly exhorted Catholics to enter these associations for bettering the condition of the laboring classes, and to organize other undertakings with the same object in view; but We have likewise warned them that all this should be done under the auspices of religion, with its help and under its guidance.

The zeal of Catholics on behalf of the masses is especially noteworthy by the fact that it is engaged in the very field in which, under the benign inspiration of the Church, the active industry of charity has always labored, adapting itself in all cases to the varying exigencies of the times. For the law of mutual charity perfects, as it were, the law of justice, not merely by giving each man his due and in not impeding him in the exercise of his rights, but also by befriending him in case of need, "not with the word alone, or the Hps, but in deed and in truth"; being mindful of what Christ so lovingly said to His own: "A new com- mandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved j^ou, that you love also one another. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if j^ou have love one for the other," This zeal in coming to the rescue of Our fellow men should, of course, be solicitous, first for the imperishable good of the soul, but it must not neglect what is necessary and helpful for the body.

We should remember what Christ said to the disciples of the Baptist who asked him: "Art Thou He that art to come or look we for another?" He invoked, as the proof of the mission given to Him among men, His exer- cise of charity, quoting for them the text of Isaias: The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the Gospel pi'eached to them} And speaking also of the Last Judgment and of the rewards and punishments He will assign. He de-

' Matt. xi. 5.