The Living Knowledge of Christ

Extract

We live in a time of speed, and there is a truly frightening flight from thought, reflection, depth and all things that lie below the surface. For this reason, among others, this time of speed has become a time of action, and a time of action becomes in matters spiritual a time in which particular stress is laid upon the apostolate.

The danger is that speed is valued more than rest, speech more than silence, action more than contemplation, and time more than eternity. For the layman especially the word ‘apostolate’ can lose all meaning unless it is the natural outcome of a full inner life. It is this inner life which still remains such a bewildering and unwieldy issue for him that the flight into social action may easily become flight from one's own problems. Perhaps the main difficulty lies in a lack of knowledge where there is plenty of good will. The knowledge we have of Christ remains like the negative of a photograph, lightless. It is not often realized that knowledge is a function of life.