THE GREATEST HUMANS IN HISTORY HAVE NOT BEEN POLITICIANS BUT INSTEAD HAVE BEEN MEN AND WOMEN WHO WERE/ARE SAINTS. THEIR INFLUENCE FOR GOOD ON OTHERS IS TRULY INCALCULABLE

Posted on October 20, 2018 by abyssum
Fr. JOHN RUTLER’S Weekly Column
October 21, 2018
   There are those who would not let facts get in the way of theory, and      such was the English philosopher Herbert Spencer who promoted the       “survival of the fittest.” This “Social Darwinism” theorized that the weak and poor would gradually die out to make way for an inevitable social     progress. He was idolized by Andrew Carnegie, even though that richest man in the world was generous in philanthropies that Spencer disdained.

Carnegie prevailed upon his mentor to visit Pittsburgh, whose Bessemer mills were supposed to be a model of social progress. Spencer confessed: “Six months’ residence here would justify suicide.”   Spencer’s theory that people are shaped by culture rather than shaping it, opposed the “great  man” theory of the historian Thomas Carlyle, for whom culture is shaped by individuals of “Godly inspiration and personality.” But Carlyle did        acknowledge the influence of cultural conditions and, moreover, warned that personal influence could be benign or evil.   

The greatest figures in history have been the saints, for their spiritual       influence is more long-lasting than even their political impact. Consider   two saints that the Church celebrates this week.   

Saint John of Capistrano was a skilled lawyer and diplomat in the
fifteenth century. As governor of Perugia in Italy, his reforms were so       radical that he was arrested by some who needed reformation.                  The imprisonment afforded him time to reflect on what really changes     society, and he became a Franciscan. He did not relinquish his powerful mind and energy when he relinquished glamor, and he became a polyglot missionary throughout more than a dozen countries in Europe. His           crowds were so huge that he had to preach outdoors, and he could be      heard by 125,000 without a microphone. In 1456, at the age of 70, he          joined the Hungarian general Hunyadi in lifting the siege of Budapest,      riding on horseback into overwhelming numbers of Ottoman Turks, and saving western civilization.   

Another saint we celebrate this week is Pope John Paul II. On his return    to Poland as Vicar of Christ, the nervous hands of the Communist leader Wojciech Jaruzelski shook, and soon afterward the Marxist empire            collapsed. As Karol Wojtyla, his Polish culture shaped him, with its legacy of heroism and suffering, and he in turned shaped much of our present  world.   If our secular schools and media are bewildered by the influence of saints, and do not mention them, it is because any recognition of their existence must acknowledge the existence of God who made them heroically virtuous beyond the abilities of the naturally great. Saint John Paul II wrote in the encyclical Centesimus Annus:   “For an adequate formation of a culture, the involvement of the whole man is required, whereby he        exercises his creativity, intelligence, and knowledge of the world and of   people. Furthermore, he displays his capacity for self-control, personal     sacrifice, solidarity and readiness to promote the common good.”

About abyssum

I am a retired Roman Catholic Bishop, Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi, Texas
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