LEGIONARY LOYALTY
The whole idea of organisation is
the unification of the many. From the member up through the ascending
grades of authority in the Legion must the principle of connection
exist, and in the measure that it is wanting will there be a departure
from the principle of life.
In a voluntary organisation, the
cement of this connection is loyalty; the loyalty of the member to the
praesidium, of the praesidium to its Curia, and so on through the
ascending grades of legionary authority to the Concilium Legionis; and
to the ecclesiastical authorities everywhere. True loyalty will inspire
legionary and praesidium and council with a dread of independent
action. On all doubtful points, in all difficult situations, and with
regard to every new work or novel departure, recourse must be had to
appropriate authority for guidance and sanction.
The fruit of loyalty is obedience,
and the test of the latter is the readiness to accept situations and
decisions which are unpalatable and let it be remarked-to accept them
cheerfully. This prompt and cordial obedience is always difficult.
Sometimes, to give it violates one's natural inclinations to such an
extent as to amount to heroism, to be in fact a sort of martyrdom. And
in such terms does St. Ignatius of Loyola speak of it. "Those," he
says, "who by a generous effort resolve to obey, acquire great merits;
obedience in its sacrifice resembles martyrdom." The Legion expects
from its children everywhere that spirit of heroic and sweet docility
to proper authority of every sort.
The Legion is an army - the army of
the Virgin Most Humble. It must exhibit in its everyday working what is
forthcoming in profusion from any earthly army - heroism and sacrifice,
even supreme sacrifice. Demands of a supremely exacting character are
all the time being made on legionaries, too. Not so often are they
called on to offer their bodies to laceration and death, like the
soldiers of the world. But let them rise gloriously higher in the
things of the spirit. Let them be ready to offer their feelings, their
judgment, their independence, their pride, their will, to the wounds of
contradiction and the death of a wholehearted submission, when
authority requires.
"Deep harm to disobey, seeing
obedience is the bond of rule," says Tennyson, but the Legion's
life-line can be sundered by more than wilful disobedience. The same
result is achieved by the officers whose neglect of the duties of
attendance or correspondence cuts off their praesidia or councils from
the main tide of legionary life. The same deep harm is done by those,
whether officers or members, who attend their meetings, but whose
attitude there - from whatever cause-is calculated to promote disunion.