Existence of evil

I am aware of the difficulties you will encounter. As I always tell you, this world in which you belong and where you remain, certainly has many good things, signs of God’s inexpressible goodness. But people have also sown cockle, as in the Gospel parable, and have propagated false teachings which poison minds and cause rebellion, sometimes even violent rebellion, against Christ and his holy Church.

Optimism

Faced with all this, how should a child of God in his Work react? Should we, like the sons of thunder, ask our Lord to send fire on earth to consume sinners?⁵ Or perhaps lament continually, like a bird of ill omen or a prophet of doom?

Drown evil in an abundance of good

You well know, my daughters and sons, that that is not our reaction, because our Lord’s spirit is different: Filius hominis non venit animas perdere, sed salvare. I like to translate this verse freely by saying we must drown evil in an abundance of good. Our first obligation is to spread doctrine, while loving all souls.

Holy intransigence and holy tolerance

You also know my rule for putting this spirit into practice: holy intransigence for error, and holy tolerance for the individuals who are in error. You need, however, to teach many people how to act this way, because it is not hard to find those who confuse intransigence with bullheadedness, and tolerance with abdicating rights or compromising on the truth.

We Christians do not hold the legacy of Christ’s truth ‒ which is safeguarded by the Church ‒ as though it were a human creation or our personal property to be used however we wish. It belongs to God, and his Church guards it, and we have no right to yield, cut down, or give way in what is not ours.