Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/533



THE MOST HOLY EUCHARIST. 527

20oled. Men have forgotten that they are children of God and brethren in Jesus Christ; they care for nothing except their own individual interests; the interests and the rights of others they not only make light of, but often attack and invade.

Hence frequent disturbances and strifes between class and class: arrogance, oppression, fraud on the part of the more powerful: misery, em'y, and turbulence among the poor. These are evils for which it is in vain to seek a remedy in legislation, in threats of penalties to be incurred, or in any other device of merely human prudence. Our chief care and endeavor ought to be, according to the admonitions which We have more than once given at considerable length, to secure the union of classes in a mutual interchange of dutiful services, a union which, having its origin in God, shall issue in deeds that reflect the true spirit of Jesus Christ and a genuine charity. This charity Christ brought into the world, with it He would have all hearts on fire. For it alone is capable of affording to soul and body alike, even in this life, a foretaste of blessedness; since it restrains man's inordi- nate self-love, and puts a check on avarice, which is the root of all evil} And whereas it is right to uphold all the claims of justice as between the various classes of society, nevertheless it is only with the efficacious aid of charity, which tempers justice, that the equality which St. Paul commended,^ and which is so salutarj^ for human society, can be estabhshed and maintained. This then is what Christ intended when He instituted this venerable Sacrament, namely, by awakening charity towards God to promote mutual charity among men. For the latter, as is plain, is by its very nature rooted in the former, and springs from it by a kind of spontaneous growth. Nor is it possible that there should be any lack of charity among men, or rather it must needs be enkindled and

Â» 1 Tim. vi. 10. ^ 2 Cor. viii. 14