Parable

On its last crossing, an old ship was assailed by a terrible storm. Besides a great number of passengers, it carried a quantity of foreign merchandise to its destination, accumulated by the avarice and cupidity of its owners. – The danger was imminent; the greatest disorder reigned aboard; the chiefs refused to cast the cargo into the sea; their orders were ignored; they had lost the confidence of the crew and the passengers. It was necessary to think of abandoning the ship. They put three boats into the sea: into the first, the largest, the most impatient and the most inexperienced rushed, bewildered, hastening to row toward the light they sighted in the distance, on the coast. They fell into the hands of a band of corsairs, who stripped them of the precious objects they had hastily gathered up, mistreating them without pity. The second group, more clever, knew how to distinguish a liberating lighthouse amid the deceptive lights that lit up the horizon and, trusting, abandoned the boat to the caprice of the waves; they went and shattered on the reefs, at the very foot of the lighthouse, from which they had not taken their eyes. They were all the more affected by their ruin and the loss of their goods inasmuch as they had glimpsed salvation.

The third group, few in number, but wise and prudent, carefully guided the fragile boat amid the obstacles; they saved both bodies and goods, with no other harm than the fatigue of the voyage.

Do not content yourselves, therefore, with guarding against piracy and against the evil Spirits, but know also how to avoid the error of the negligent travelers, who lost their goods and were shipwrecked in the harbor. Know how to guide your boat amid the reefs of the passions, and you will moor with happiness in the harbor of eternal life, rich in the virtues you will have acquired in your voyages.

Saint Vincent de Paul. n [1]

[v.

Saint Vincent de Paul.]