Here Benedetto paused, and gently begged Giovanni Selva to come nearer.
“I wish to see you,” he said. “What I have said and, above all, what I am going to say, was born of you.”
He stretched out his hand, and taking Don Clemente’s hand, he added:
“The Father knows it. Each should feel God’s presence within himself, but each should feel it also in the other, and I feel it so strongly in you. Yes,” he continued, turning to Don Clemente, as if appealing to his authority, “this is the true foundation of human fraternity, and therefore those who love their fellow men and believe they are cold toward God are nearer the Kingdom than many who imagine they love God, but who do not love their fellow-men.”
The young priest who was standing, almost timidly, behind Selva, exclaimed, “Oh! yes, yes!” Selva bowed his head with a sigh. The tall, dark figure leaning against the doorpost did not move, but the gaze fixed on Benedetto became inexpressibly intense, tender and sad.
Don Clemente again bent over the invalid, entreating him to pause a moment, and the sister also begged him to rest. Neither Mayda nor any of the disciples spoke. Benedetto drank a little water, thanked the sister, and began to speak once more:
“Purify the faith for grown men, who cannot thrive on the food of infants. This part of your work is for those who are outside the Church, whether they belong to her by name or not—for those with whom you will be constantly mingling. Work to glorify the idea of God, worshipping above all things, and teaching that there is no truth which is opposed to God or to His laws. But be equally cautious that the infants do not approach their lips to the food for grown men. Be not offended by an impure faith, an imperfect faith, when the life is pure and the conscience upright; for in comparison with the infinite depths of God, there is little difference between your faith and the faith of a simple, humble woman, and if the woman’s conscience be upright, and her life pure, you will not pass before her in the Kingdom of Heaven. Never publish writings concerning difficult religious questions, for sale, but rather distribute them with prudence, and never put your name to them.
“Labour that the purified faith may penetrate into life. This labour is for those who are in the Church,—and for those who wish to be in the Church,—and their name is legion, they are infinite in number; for those who really believe in the dogmas, and would gladly believe in more dogmas; I who really believe in the miracles, and are glad to believe in more miracles, but who do not really believe in the Beatitudes, who say to Christ, ‘Lord, Lord!’ but who think it would be too hard to do all. His will, and who have not even zeal enough to search for Him in the Holy Book; who do not know that religion is, above all things, action and life. Teach such as these who pray abundantly, often idolatrously, to practise, besides the prayers which are prescribed, the mystic prayer as well, in which is the purest faith, the most perfect hope, the most perfect charity, which in itself purifies the soul and purifies life. Do I tell you to take, publicly, the place of the pastors? No; let each one work in his own family, each one among his own friends, and those who can, with the pen. Thus you will till the soil from which the pastors arise. My sons, I do not promise you that you will renew the world. You will labour in the night-time, without visible gain, like Peter and his companions on the Sea of Galilee. But, at last, Christ will come, and then your gain shall be great.”
He was silent, praying for his disciples, sighing in the prescience of much suffering to come to them from many enemies of many kinds. Then he pronounced the last words:
“Later, give me your prayers; now, your kiss.”