Experiencing the Hundredfold

Christian teaching reveals God and his infinite perfection with far greater clarity than is possible by human faculties alone.  Nor is that all.  This same Christian teaching also commands us to honor God by faith, which is of the mind, by hope, which is of the will, by love which is of the heart; and thus the whole man is subjected to the supreme maker and ruler of all things.  The truly remarkable dignity of man as the son of the heavenly Father, in whose image he is formed, and with whom he is destined to live eternal happiness, is also revealed only by the doctrine of Jesus Christ.  From this very dignity, and from man's knowledge of it, Christ showed that men should love one another as brothers, and should live here as children of light, "not of revelry and drunkenness, not in debauchery and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy."  He also bids us to place all our anxiety and care in the hands of God, for he will provide for us; he tells us to help the poor, to do good to those who hate us, and to prefer the eternal welfare of the soul to the temporal goods of this life.  Without wishing to touch on every detail, nevertheless is it not true that the proud man is urged and commanded by the teaching of Christ to strive for humility, the source of true glory?  "Whoever, therefore, humbles himself... he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."  From that same teaching we learn prudence of the spirit, and thereby we avoid prudence of the flesh; we learn justice, by which we give to every man his due; fortitude, which prepares us to endure all things and with steadfast heart suffer all things for the sake of God and eternal happiness; and, last of all, temperance through which we cherish even poverty borne out of love for God, nay, we even glory in the cross itself, unmindful of its shame.  In fine, Christian teaching not only bestows on the intellect the light by which it attains truth, but from it our will draws that ardor by which we are raised up to God and joined with him in the practice of virtue.

Saint Pius X

-Saint Pius X (1914) reigned from 1903 to 1914 and was canonized on May 29, 1954.