Can we hear words of this young person?

John Freund, CM
December 3, 2014

Ozanam-007

Can we hear words of this young person? Karl Michael Hila draws our attention to a young person named Frederic Ozanam.

“The earth has become a chilly place. It is up to us Catholics to rekindle the flame of human warmth which is going out. It is up to us to recommence the great work of regeneration even if it means another era of martyrs.

Can we remain passive in the midst of a world which is suffering and groaning? And as for us, my dear friend, are we going to make no attempt to be like those saints whom we loved?

If we do not know how to love God, for it seems that we need to see in order to love and we can only see God with the eyes of faith, and our faith is so weak! But men, the poor, we see them with our eyes of flesh!

They are there before us and we can place our finger and hand in their wounds and the marks of the Crown of Thorns are visible in their foreheads. Thus, there is no possible room for unbelief and we should fall at their feet and say to them with the apostle:

My Lord and my God! You are our master and we will be your servants. You are for us the sacred image of the God that we cannot see. Since we know not how to love Him otherwise, we will love Him in your persons.”

 Karl Michael is International Youth Representative of the International SVDP. He describes Frederic Ozanam as ” a  a young lay saint for our generation: a lay person who had so much passion and dedication in serving the poorest of the poor, in promoting works of charity (especially as an expression of faith – even urging priests to leave their pulpits and go out to the poor), and in fighting for social justice (promoting the word “equality” for those who have nothing but the world “liberty” on their lips, and from time to time adding the word “fraternity”).

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