The danger of Human Respect is not sufficiently recognized. In almost every Catholic it is a weak spot. In the case of some, it is a defect so grave as to put real holiness out of the question. Human Respect may be defined as the putting of the opinion of others in the place of our conscience. It sets up ridicule and unpopularity as the thing most to be avoided even at the risk of offending against truth and principle. Beginning in small things, if constantly yielded to Human Respect brings about a general lowering of principle. A state of mind is reached which is as different from sanctity as chalk is from cheese.
You have always been in the habit of blessing yourself when at your meals. When not at home, through a form, of shame, you do not do this. This is Human Respect.
You always touch your hat as you pass a Church -except when with Protestants? You would not have a religious picture in your drawingroom. You are shy about making the Stations of the Cross. You would be mortified if your Rosary Beads fell from your pocket in Protestant company or in the bus. All these are signs of the disease we are discussing.
In a word, you are so taken up with making your conduct acceptable to others that you have no room for the thought that God might have been pleased by these little open professions of Faith. You have treated Him as the rich are supposed to treat their poor relations -acknowledging them in private, ignoring them in public.
In the life of St. Philip Neri, we read how that Saint was in the habit of imposing very humiliating penances upon his disciples in his anxiety to destroy in them any trace of this mean spirit. Such practices would nowadays be termed extreme. Here is a suggestion, which is not extreme. It will help anyone resolved upon the destruction of this failing . . . Wear openly something Catholic; some little devotional badge or emblem that will mark you as a Catholic, who is not ashamed to be known as one. The feeling of unwillingness to do this, which will come to many, is the best test of its value; it is the spirit you seek to kill that is protesting in you.
Such objection as: "I don't believe in badge-wearing," and "I don't believe in making a parade of my religion," are usually not sincere. Those who speak in this way seldom seem to have any objection to wearing political or trade badges. Be honest with yourself. The trouble is that you are not really proud of being a Catholic. It is human nature to publish the fact if you are.
The priest and the nun advertise themselves to the world for what they are. Let the laity also, in the little ways that are open to them, confess Christ before men that He may one day confess them before His Father in Heaven. But in this let there be wholesome moderation. Do nothing that will earn for yourself the name of mere eccentricity.