JOY IN DUTY

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 144, 14 December 1935, Page 13

JOY IN DUTY

SERVICE OF LOVE

SELF-SACRIFICING SISTERS

(By Dr. F. H. Charity.)

A bright warm morning—fleecy clouds playing hide and seek with the smiling . sun, --pleasant shadows frolicking- on- green flanks- of hills, trees, flowers, 'the songs of mated birds—and yonder on high, ground the Home of. Compassion, Island Bay. A thought stirred- in.me:. Would-not !those self-sacrificing nuns like to-be as free as the. birds on that bright day, far away from all sights .and sounds of illness? Would they not like.to leave their tasks for-a few .hours and have no worry about, stricken.humanity? • How absurd that thought seemed to me when I rang a bell and had a glimpse. af a happy face above a robe of dark blue—a smile of greeting, a smile of peace, a smile free from all desire to exchange 'hard duty for any worldly pleasure, a. iheart-warming smile which put me -in mind, of the founder of the home, the Rev. Mother Aubert, who had that wonderful conquering faith in her mission of loving .service for the. "not wanteds,." the faith which moved mountain's of doubt and timidity...-..-.-. ■ Here then ..was that .Aubert. spirit of service faithfully "carried on—a noble ■ reversal of a Shakespearean cynicism: "The evil that men do lives after them. The good- is>.oft interred' with their bones." . Here goodness goes on from goodness in. that devotion to urgent needs of helpless childhood

and old age.. That'joy, in.real service, that soulful. pleasure in' easing the pain of others shows'that the Sisters' of Compassion have the philosophy which the wise Cardinal Newman, put into these words:— "Nothing lasts, nothing keeps incorrupt and pure which comes of mere feeling; feelings die like spring flowers, and are fit only to.be cast into the oven. . Persons thus ~. circumstanced .will find their, religion fail them in time; a revulsion of mind will ensue. They will feel a violent distaste for what pleased them before, a sickness and weariness of mind or even an enmity towards it or a great disappointment or a confusion and perplexity and despondence. Before honour is humility sowing in tears; before, weeping isjoy, pain before pleasure, duty before pleasure." .', ' _ ' . ' ■ ■•.-■■•■ There it all 'is in a ' terse' phrase, "Duty before pleasure/ duty^ which becomes a pleasure in-the cheerful do; ing of- it. ■ .■■-'' .-•■■' -•■■ '::■■:- Long years ago I read this passage in a magazine: "I heard a sigh, a low, soft, sweet sigh. So might a million mothers sigh bending over the cradles of sweet wilful innocence." 1 heard such a • sigh ■ from Mother Aubert and from her successor^-a sigh of yearning to be. able to do more and more for suffering humanity, more'and more' to change misery into happiness: ' ' People of Wellington; ponder for "£ moment on these "■ words of C. W. Saleeby: "As we dwell, we living things in this isle of terror, each of us "is inalienably bound to all the rest. So you.may be selfish for a. century, but, fit the last, others will ••claim for dust. For altruism is the law-of. Nature."'Of course, altruism is only another name for charity the1 sense in which. Christ used the word, the-charity .which is enduring human love and. kindness. ■ The Sisters" of • Compassion have never found Wellington people-unwill-ing, to help in a good cause. The call today is- for gifts of money and goods to' enable the Sisters to assure. worthy Christmas cheer for the hundreds of persons who-look to them for comfort: Inspired by the Aubert confidence in the public, the Sisters believe that their appeal will not be-in vain. ■ ■ \ A special • celebration 'is projected in'honour of the- 15Uv anniversary of Mother Aubert's landing in New Zealand (December '30, 18G0).