(A Reflection on Legion Handbook Chapter. 6, Item 4, page 34)
Fellow legionaries and Children of Mary, we are being reminded and warned that we should not use the fact that Mary is powerful or superior to us, as an excuse to be lazy and not put in our best when it comes to rendering her service i.e. in whatever we are asked to do.
We are not just mere instrument of Our Lady but partners with her and are expected to use every faculty given us by God, contributing our quota to that partnership. We must give 100%. We must give the best, the choicest gifts that can be offered and not remnants or leftovers. We are not expected to leave any reserve for ourselves or for anyone else.
At times, we are prone to give flimsy excuses: that Mary is all-powerful, all abundant, and all sufficient, that there is nothing significant can we contribute or what can poor sinners like us ever give. Remember that Mary needs us, she needs our bodies, our souls, our voices, our hands, our legs, our manners, our senses, our emotions, our intellects and attitudes to use to reach out to souls. People need to Mary through us; therefore it is only those who submit themselves 100% that she can give herself completely to. There can be no true cooperation or partnership when we do not give to the fullness of our capacity.
In as much as we depend on Mary to supply all that we are lacking, she will not do for us what we can and ought to do for ourselves. We have our roles and responsibilities in this partnership with Mary our Queen. If due to laziness or lack of courage we shirk from our responsibility and push it to her, it shows that we are not sincere and unworthy. Which soldier who is loyal would do that to his/her commander?
Our attitude in this relationship should be like that of the saints - who prayed as if everything depended on prayer and worked their hearts out as if everything depended on that work. We must not reserve anything or be calculative as some of us are. There are some of us when on legion work, will be counting the hours, looking out our watches to know when the time will be up to 2 hours so that we can stop, even though we have ample time to spend with a soul. Some of us rush our prayers; we rush our work and everything, at the end we think we have done something good. Some of us are members of several societies in the Church that meet almost at the same time. We run from one to the other and never concentrating or have our hearts in any. We are in all for eye-service. “Let people see me that I am there”. "You are a jack of all trade and a master of none". You are neither here nor there. Your devotion is shallow and cannot withstand the test of time. You are not giving your best because even the little you have is shared to all of the societies you claim to belong to. Such people are easily carried away by the wolves out there. The root of your devotion is shallow and when the winds of errors and trials come you will fall. Such people are suffering from ‘activism’ like Martha, too busy to listen to Jesus, while Mary chosen the better part.
The calculating legionary, who calculates how much and the amount of effort needed to put into an effort, as the handbook says will soon find his/herself reducing in grace, become barren and unproductive as time goes by because he/she does not trust his/her partner. Remember that in the Legion Promise and at the Acies, we promised ourselves and all that we have, to be at the disposal of Mary. Further more in the Legion Promise, we promise to subject ourselves to the service of the Legion and render a worthy service. To any work we are assigned to, be it big or small, we are required to give the best quality and 100% capacity. We must do with all of our heart out of love for Mary and Jesus. It is the involvement of all our hearts in whatever we are doing that Our Lady wants, not to play to the gallery.
We can refer to Our Lord Jesus’ words on that quality of service that we must give: that it must be with all our hearts, soul, mind and all our strength. We must realise that it what we give that we shall receive. If we give 100% we shall receive even more. We must only look to Mary to complete the rest by perfecting and purifying our efforts after we have given of our best.
In the book of Genesis, we can see from the first sacrifice offered by two people; Cain and Abel, while Cain's offering was rejected because he did not give the best of the crops, Abel gave the best from his flock and with a grateful heart. His offering was not only appealing to God but was accepted. We Legionaries must learn from Abel not only to give the best but as well with gratitude: of all people, we are privileged and singled out to be partners with Our Lady in the work of saving and leading souls to Christ.
Let us learn that if we cannot be the sun, be a star, if you cannot be a river, be a stream, if you cannot be a high way, be a trail, it is not by the size or height that we win or lose but be the best of whatever we are. When we refuse to use our abilities to the full potential we deny ourselves the opportunity to develop ourselves to reach the fullness of our being. An analogy is that if one is not crippled but decides to use crutches like a cripple, one will discover that by the time one wants to walk normally one will find it difficult, because the leg or the body and mind have gotten used to being crippled from lack of use.
Submitted by:
Bro. Fidelis-Mary
