It is said that there are people who “live” and people who “are lived”; by who? by the people around them. There are people with passion and people who are dull of whom “no one feels nor suffers” mentally; it´s a desecration of the precious gift of life; this has to be sufficient to create enthusiasm “to be passionate” (=to create passion). The mere “lasting” is not equivalent “to live”.
One is “passionate” when he experiences the motivation to get up every morning and begins to work, because there is something – or somebody- who is “much more for me”. Only in this way a person lives as a real human being and not as a machine, it is the person himself who decides and acts; he is not “carried away”, but he goes.
The words of Fr. Claret that motivate our reflection today are autobiographical: he lived it. His life in the world was not of a tormented person, but it was certainly a zealous and passionate one which spoke a lot about God and the brother and he lacked the time to serve both. In some retreats he makes a resolution of not losing a single minute; as the day was very short for him, he was stealing his time from resting hours to the extent of getting accustomed of not sleeping more than 3 or 4 hours every night.
The only title Claret wanted for himself- he asked for it and got a it- was that of the “apostolic missionary”, namely to be able to dedicate himself for the testimony of Jesus Christ in the style of the apostles. This was the fever that was burning within him continuously. When he speaks about love as the force that activated the natural qualities, he did not explain it as a theory, but spoke about himself. It seems there are some things that were unknown to him; such as, reluctance, boredom or lack of vitality. He believed always in providence, but this didn´t diminish his responsibility in using his own qualities strengthened always by love.