The Two Ways and Kingdoms

Through Baptism the child is consecrated to the Divine Savior. It becomes His own property and possession, subject to Him and forever bound to Him, believing in Him, hoping in Him, and loving Him, disposed to live and to act as He wills and as His example suggests. It is for the mother to help it to do this. If she is accustomed to follow her natural inclinations, she will find her task a most difficult one; for the life of the Divine Savior was in no way similar to that of our lower nature. It was diametrically opposed to it.

Our nature prizes honor and a good name, strives after authority and high places, desires to see itself in power, loves display, titles, influence, command. The life of Jesus, on the contrary, was simple, His deportment unpretending. He avoided honors. He permitted calumnies, invectives, persecution. He stood as a criminal before the courts of justice and, after the most cruel treatment, He died in the bitterest pain upon the cross amid the triumph of His enemies.

Mary's maternal heart suffered inexpressibly during the injuries to which her Divine Son subjected Himself; but with all that she would not have had it otherwise. She knew and she constantly kept before her eyes that such was precisely the will of God, that it was in accordance with His eternal decrees for the human race, and most necessary for the atonement of sin and the salvation of souls.

In the same way, Christian Mother, should you be disposed. A life of mortification of the natural inclinations is just as necessary for your child as for yourself. With original sin is engendered in nature a threefold inordinate concupiscence which excites to evil: the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life. By the waters of Baptism, original sin is effaced; but the threefold concupiscence, although weakened, still remains. Your child possesses sufficient grace and it will receive still more, in order victoriously to resist it; but it will have to struggle, and only by an uninterrupted succession of conflicts will it be able to hold its ground. You should stand by it, guarding, animating, and supporting it. You should steel your heart, and firmly oppose all the emotions, desires, and wishes that arise from the dark depths of its sinful nature. How will you be able to do this if you are not yourself a true follower of Jesus Christ, if you are not, as was the holy Mother of God, filled with the spirit of sacrifice and the love of the cross?