It is no exaggeration to say that “The Soul of the Apostolate” by Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, OCSO is one of the most influential books I have ever read. A work on the necessity of the interior life and the dangers of what Chautard calls “activism” (the failure to place the interior life as the foundation of every exterior apostolic work), the book bears the distinction of being recommended by the great Pope St. Pius X, who once said, “I value it very highly and have myself made it my bedside book.”
Thinking about my previous post, and wishing to expound upon my conviction that the role of men, particularly fathers, in the building up of a Christian civilization is too often understated even by traditional Christians, I was reminded of something I read in Chautard’s book. Chautard was describing the work of a great priest, a Fr. Allemand, who based all of his own evangelization on a deep and dedicated interior life of prayer, and then branched out by establishing “shock troops” of Christians who could do the same. Chautard explains,
“The man of God gained a great ascendancy over these energetic youths, by which he dominated them and gained their esteem, respect, and love. Fr. Allemand wanted to build on no foundation but the interior life, and he was strong enough to form a nucleus of young men, at the center of his movement, men of whom he did not hesitate to ask, to the extreme limit permitted by their condition, a complete inner life, uncompromising custody of the heart, morning meditation, and so on. In a word, he asked the complete Christian life, in the sense in which it was understood and practiced by the Christians of the earliest times.
And these young apostles, succeeding one another, have continued to be the true center of this movement at Marseilles; and the movement has given to the Church several Bishops, and continues to give her many secular priests, missionaries, religious, as well as thousands of family men who are at all times the chief support of the parochial works in the great Mediterranean seaport, where they form a group that not only does honor to business and industry and the professions, but constitutes a real center for the apostolate.”
And here we come to the portion that is directly pertinent to my previous post. Keep in mind that this was written by a French priest in 1907.
“We have mentioned “family men.” That brings to mind the burden of the refrain that can be heard almost everywhere: “The apostolate is relatively easy in the case of young men and girls and especially married women, mothers. But when it comes to mature men, it is just about impossible. And yet so long as we have not made the fathers of families not only into Christians but also into apostles, the influence of Christian mothers, great as it is, will be obstructed or short-lived and we will never set the social kingdom of Christ on a firm
basis.”
This demonstrates to me that though a mother’s influence in her family is profound, unique and irreplaceable, it in no way compares to that of a father – for good or bad. It also tells me that long before the effects of the feminist movement ravaged our present society, good priests were everywhere having a difficult time making apostles out of men and, as Dom Chautard predicted, without truly Christian men as heads of families the social kingdom of Christ could never be secure. There were times and places, such as his example of Marseilles, in which mature men were Christianized and the effects on the societal landscape were great. Yet it was the lack of formation in "family men" that he laments, long before liberal women had been unleashed into the world in all their ungodly rage.
Though feminism has further exasperated our societal woes, we have to explore the possibility, nay the reality, of a deeper root. We have to go back to a lack of good leadership on the part of men as the direct cause of the rise of feminism. If the reins are securely in the hands of women, we should ask ourselves, “Who handed over the reins in the first place?” If women browbeat their men into submission, we ought to ask ourselves, “Is man so weak that he can so easily be browbeaten, or is it that a very many men have lacked conviction and have carelessly allowed their God-given duty to be wrenched from their hands?”
Still, it is not my intention to simply point the finger at men as the sole source of all our problems, nor is this an attempt to exonerate women when they have failed to act as truly Christian women. Liberal feminism is an evil that has permeated society, to the detriment of the family and society. Yet it is my conviction that we cannot stop at the gates of feminism, we must go deeper.
We must all of us consider the
implications of leadership, which in the realm of the family happens to belong to the man as the head of his domestic church. We can consider it in light of other relationships, if that makes the study any easier. Thinking of a struggle for dominance between parent and child, if the child assumes the dominant role, whom do we have to thank but the parent? Surely, the child does what is wrong and it must be corrected, but it is the parent who has the lion’s share of culpability and must be formed in the appropriate ways to keep the proper order. And the same is true for our priests and bishops. As Catholics we know that bishops are responsible for every soul in their diocese, and we see that when bishops take their leadership seriously (or less than seriously) the effects are clearly evident in their seminaries and parishes. Dom Chautard touches upon this when he remarks to his fellow priests,
“When we thus admit helplessness [in converting mature men], do we not display our poverty in the exterior life, which alone can teach us the means of preventing so many men from getting away from the influence of the Church? Do we not prefer the easy sermons that are so successful with youths and women to the intensive labor of preparation demanded by sermons that have power to arouse convictions and love and lasting resolutions in the minds and hearts of men? Only the interior life can sustain us in the hidden, back-breaking labor of planting the seed that seems to go so long without fruit.”
Being a truly great man and priest, instead of only pointing the finger at the “family men” who are so difficult to evangelize, Dom Chautard assumes responsibility upon himself and calls his fellow priests to do the same. He doesn’t exempt the lay men from their fault, but neither does he exempt himself. In doing so, Chautard demonstrates the beauty and importance of each Christian embracing his particular role of leadership, with all its ups and downs. He tells us that blame as such is useless. Instead, examining our situation in its complexity, and contending with
all the sources of sin is the greatest way to remedy our plight. Most importantly, Christian men are called to imitate their Savior who, though He was perfectly innocent, assumed all the guilt on His own shoulders and in doing so was able to redeem those whom He loved.
Looking for a way to reinforce with the kids your lessons about the Holy Rosary during this October? Here's 
