What should religious offer to the world: a witness of virtue or of sin?

Imagine someone who becomes seriously ill, and after many attempts for a cure, finally finds a doctor who prescribes an efficacious remedy. After some days of treatment, he finds himself cured. Naturally, gratitude will bring him to transmit to as many as possible the competence of the doctor and efficacious medicine prescribed, emphasizing the gravity of the illness he was saved from. His testimony, besides praising the doctor, will serve for posterior experiences regarding this illness and encourage all of those who suffer from it to hope for a cure. Evidently, no one would think that this propaganda entails an apology of the sad condition of the sick person…

Something similar happens in the spiritual field. All of us are affected by the same infirmity – sin – and we need living examples that encourage us to reach perfection. For even though it seems difficult, we only need to have recourse to the Divine Doctor and benefit from his grace. And all becomes possible. God himself deigned to carefully assign to some men and women the special vocation of serving as a testimony of sanctity for the others. They are those who embrace the Evangelical counsels as a means of achieving the perfection of charity. Their lives should be a continuous manifestation of the power of our loving God, who became man as ourselves to free us from sin. What should we think, then, of a religious who does not reflect this divine power in his way of life, content in boasting that he is a sinner just like everyone else? Read on…