Going over some of my notes last night, I came across this sentence of Saint-Exupéry' s which I had written down some rime in the past: 'There are too many people we just leave asleep.' It was there, in my handwriting, on the back of an old envelope. The Lord, in the twinkling of an eye (as he so often does), had given me a sign. I meditated in his light and did a rapid reappraisal of my life. Rather than judge those who sleep, and become discouraged over how many of them there are, I should try to wake them up and heap them to grow. How many times will Jesus have to remind me of it?

We are surrounded by people. Among them, there are some who are struggling to grow, to go beyond themselves, to fight alongside their brothers for justice, human dignity and peace. Among Christians, there are a few of these militants-so few, perhaps, that we can count them on the fingers of one hand.
Men exist as though life were a train roaring through the night. Made drowsy by the movement of the train, they sleep, and they are carried along. They were placed on the train. Do they know where they are going? Do they know why they are traveling? Will they wake up even when they reach their station?
It is terribly tempting to be discouraged when we meet someone who neither hungers nor thirsts-someone we know at work; a neighbor in another flat in our block; one of our friends. There is a multitude of people who are satisfied with themselves, whose stomachs are full, so to speak, and who are not interested in growing or in fighting for others. 'We have enough to live on,' they say. 'We'll get by' - as though man could 'get by' in eternal life! - 'and, so far as the others are concerned, let them take care of themselves. '
And yet, in our bodies, our hearts, our minds, we have been created to grow. We are designed for action. It is up to us to build the world, and all men are invited to participate actively in the human groups to which they belong.
Mankind itself, as a whole, must continue to progress in time. We must take part in that ascending spiral: our sons must be greater than we are, and their sons must be greater than they. God wants us to grow. Like any father, he cannot bear to see his sons become weaklings or cripples, either in body or in mind. All men are called to be perfect, as their Father in heaven is perfect. All human groups are called to become a community in Christ.

Regardless of appearances, we should not judge others, for people who appear te be sleeping may actually be meditating;
people who appear to be unenthusiastic may actually be under strict self-control;
people who appear to be children may be wise old men.
Regardless of appearances, we cannot judge others since we do not know
what they have had to put up with,
what they have tried to do,
what has happened to them.

One day, this wakened man will stand astonished before the treasure which has been revealed to him, and he will say:
'I had no idea that I was capable of doing such things for other people.' At that moment, he is saved. Having begun to give, he will have begun to grow.
Such a man rediscovers the interior source of growth, and he is consciously in contact with it as it pours forth its energy. Soon, he will be able to give it a name; for that source in him is infinite love: God.
Jesus, always mindful of others, said first of ali to the Samaritan woman, 'Give me a drink.' And, because he awakened in her the source of giving, despite the obstacle of sin, she became capable of receiving the supreme revelation: ' "Whoever drinks this water will get thirsty again; but anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah-that is, Christ-is coming" . . . "I who am speaking to you," said Jesus, "I am he" ,  (John 4: 13-14,25-26).