"It
is undoubtedly true that each of us, men and women, irresponsible and
thoughtless as we often are, hold within our hands the happiness and sorrows of
others. We cannot help it or escape from it. The power is in us inalienably
almost from birth to death—in us, because we are persons—and we are responsible
for the use we make of it. Indeed, so mysterious is this power that the very
presence of a person who does not realize his responsibility is often the
source of the keenest pain of all . . . The failure to exercise the power to
give happiness to others is not merely negative in its results; it is the
source of the most positive suffering of all. Thus there is no escape from the
responsibility involved in the possession of this power. Not to use it
where it is due is to destroy all happiness. Strange power, indeed, to be
committed to such weak and unworthy hands; yet there could be but one thing
worse: that none could interfere with the joys and sorrows of others. We
might envy their happiness and pity their sorrows, but we could not help them.
It would be a world of isolated individuals wrapped in inviolable selfishness;
each must take care of himself and the world must go its way."
— Fr. Basil W.
Maturin, Christian Self-Mastery, p. 149
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