"We all know the story of the destruction of wicked Sodom: how two Angels were sent to save Lot who lived there; and how eager they showed themselves on their charitable errand. "And the Angels pressed Lot, saying: Arise, save thy life; look not back, but save thyself in the mountains. ... And as he lingered, they took his hand, saying: Make haste and be saved."
Our good Angel says the same to us today and every day. "Make haste, dear child, and save yourself - not from the fire which destroyed Sodom, but from one more terrible by far, a fire compared with which the fiercest furnace of earth is but painted fire. You who cannot bear a spark on your hand, save yourself from the flames that burn without destroying, that torment both soul and body, that can never, never be extinguished.
"But to save yourself means more than this. It is not only escaping eternal pain, it is securing eternal joy, such joy as you have never dreamed, the joy for which God made you, a joy so great that ye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart imagined it; the very same joy that the Angels and Saints, and Our Lady, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and God Himself enjoy. It is a happiness that will quite satisfy you, and it is the only happiness that can. It is promised to you by God, who can neither deceive nor be deceived; if you will you can reach it - dear child, make haste, make haste!"
To save our soul is the work for which we were sent into this world. We must try to understand how important, how necessary it is, how great is the value of our soul. If you want to know the worth of a precious stone, you take it to a jeweller, you ask what he would give for it. If you want to know the worth of your soul, see what God who made it thinks of it, what He has given for it.
God the Father has had it in His mind from all eternity. As long as He has been God He has loved it, and provided everything it will need to bring it to the happiness He has prepared for it. Because it is the work of His hands it must be something very grand. People go a long way to see a painting by a great artist. What must the soul be like on which God has stamped the image of Himself. Your soul in the state of grace is so beautiful in His sight that He would give all the precious things in this world for it, nay, He has actually given all the Blood of His only and well-beloved Son to keep it from harm.
To save it, Jesus Christ came down from Heaven, and suffered, and died. He did not think His Precious Blood, poured out to the last drop, too much to give for it. The Church says He did not hesitate a moment when He had to choose between the torments of the cross and the salvation of your soul. How He must love it!
At your Baptism the Holy Ghost came to dwell in your soul as in His temple. We adorn a church with rich ornaments because it is the temple of God; but no richness of gold and silver, and marbles, and carving, and jewelled monstrance, and windows glowing with many colours, can be compared with the splendours of grace with which God has enriched your soul in Baptism and Confirmation. This is a living temple which can know and love Him who has made and adorned it. And so He loves to dwell in it, and perfect it more and more. He is continually speaking to you by His holy inspirations, putting good thoughts into your mind and helping you to do what is right.
It is not enough to say that to save your soul is the most important, the most necessary work you have to do. Our Lord says it is the " one thing necessary," and that nothing else will be of any use to you if you fail in this. What do we mean by a thing being necessary? That we cannot do without it; that we must have it at any cost. Air is necessary, food is necessary. But compared with the salvation of my soul these are not necessaries at all. Without air and food I shall die of course, but the life of my body is not necessary. It is the soul that matters. To keep it safe for eternal life-this is necessary, this I must secure at any price.
Save thyself," the Angels said to Lot. Because no one could get him out of Sodom unless he be- stirred himself, and set out for the high mountain where he would be safe. So is it with us. Neither our parents nor our teachers, nor God Himself, can save us unless we make efforts ourselves. The Angel took Lot by the hand and led him along the right road. Our good Angel will lead and help us, but we must go with him, we must take the necessary steps. This brings us to the study of a very important word, perhaps there is not one more important in the language. Kings and crossing-sweepers, learned and unlearned, fathers and mothers and children, must grasp its meaning well.
"I know - GOD."
"The Catechism."
"Being fair to everybody, not being a sneak and mean."
It has to do with all these, but I am afraid it is too hard for you to guess; the word is - Responsibility.
"Responsibility! why, there's not much in that; every one knows what that is."
Tell us, then.
"Well, when you've got a canary or anything to look after, you mustn't leave it without seed or water. And if any one has lent you a bicycle or a book and you spoil it, you'll have to get it mended or make it good somehow, because it isn't your own."
Exactly. Responsibility, as you Latin scholars know, comes from respondeo, I answer. It means, then, the obligation of having to account or answer to another for something entrusted to us. We have to account to God for the immortal soul He has given us. This responsibility began as soon as we were able to tell right from wrong. It increases as the powers of our soul unfold and strengthen, as the light of reason and the light of faith grow through the instructions, the graces, the inspirations, the Sacraments we receive. We cannot shirk it or shift it on to another. What we must do is to look it steadily in the face and square our conduct by what it requires of us. We are responsible to God for our souls. It is a grand thing to have so noble a charge, to be trusted with the guardianship of this royal child and its training for the Kingdom of Heaven.
"But if you don't do it properly it will be the worse for you. I think sometimes I'd rather not have the charge."
"Oh, I wouldn't. Why, we shouldn't be any better than beasts if we had no soul."
Would it be very grateful, do you think, to wish we had not this responsibility, or would it be rather selfish? Suppose your mother were to trust you with your youngest brother or sister, who had to be got safe to school every day through the streets of a big town, would you find it in your heart to grumble, or would you be proud that the pet of the family was trusted to your care?
But there is no use discussing likes and dislikes here. We were not consulted on the subject, we could not have been. "Wit it well: Love was His meaning" in giving you to yourself, a love that now bids you bring yourself safely with its help to the eternal happiness in store for you.
"Save yourself," your Angel says. No one can do this for you, not even God Himself, for "He who made you without you will not save you without you," says St. Augustine. God's rule is that all His creatures to whom He has given understanding and will, shall use these grand powers in His service, and by so doing gain Heaven for themselves. He holds out Heaven as a prize and says: "See what I have ready for you when your short time on earth is over, if you show yourself worthy of it and do what I tell you to save your soul. I call it yours, but remember it is Mine much more than yours, because I made it. I love it dearly, more, much more than you do. I am angry with any one who hurts it or spoils its beauty. I have trusted it to you and you will have to give Me an account of it. Take care of it, then. It is the most precious thing you have; it is the only thing that is really yours; you must lose everything else. How foolish it would be for the sake of a pleasure that is gone directly to risk losing this treasure. Watch it, guard it well. Do not let its companion, the body, have all it cries for. It often wants what would hurt the soul. Where the soul goes after death the body will go too some day. If you save the soul, the body will go bright and beautiful with it to Heaven. If you lose your soul, the body, like a hideous mask, will be with it in hell for all eternity. Therefore think of your soul first, and say a resolute "No" to the body when it asks what would harm the soul. If you could see your soul as I see it, you would think no trouble too great to prevent its being spoilt by sin. If you knew the happiness of those who have saved their soul, the despair of those who have lost it, you would fear sin above all other evils, so as to be resolved never to commit a wilful sin for the love or fear of anything whatsoever."
The devil who hates you would do anything to get your soul and prevent it from gaining the happiness he has lost. He does not mind trouble. He lays plots for the ruin of every one; he dared to tempt Jesus Christ Himself.
Learn, then, the worth of your soul from those who know its value - from the God who made it; from its great enemy, the devil; from the blessed in heaven, who have saved their souls; from those in hell who, having lost their souls, have lost all."
- Mother Mary Loyola, Home for Good, pp.7-13
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