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He inspired young people
By Fr. Nagy
From an Irish visitor to Yugoslavia we have received this outline of the life of a remarkable Croation Catholic whose life may be said to have been dedicated to the youth of his country and who was honoured by them as guide and counsellor in the living of a full Christian life.
The parents of Dr. Ivan Merz, who was born in December 1896, were only nominal Catholics; his father was an Austrian officer who was in charge of the railway station in Banja Luka. Ivan got a decent civilian education, but one without a religious background.. By nature he was very gifted, especially in art, and this was seen in his special interest in literature which he studied later. Such riligious teaching as he got at school did not help him much in his religious life. On the other hand he was strongly influenced by the teacher of Croatian at his grammar school, Dr. Ljubomir Marakovic. Later Ivan would declare: "He saved me for eternity". The doctor was a Catholic intellectual with a strong personality and a broad education. With his honest religious faith he inspired the young people he taught, especially Ivan. Having him as a teacher Ivan led by God's mercy, found a way to religion and the appreciation of real life values. After graduating Ivan went to the military academy of Wiener Neustadt, but as he did not like the Army he stayed there for only three months. Later, at his mother's wish he tried to study law at Vienna university. With the outbreak of World War I he found himself back in the Army and sent to the Italian front, where he stayed until the end of the war. THE WAR’S EFFECT The war, the cause of their spiritual weakness for so many, was a revelation, especially from the religious point of view, for Ivan. The constant presence of death, the prevalence of life tragedies and suffering led him to abandon his literary-aesthetic view of the world, with the result that he emerged from the war extablished in his belief and absolutely convinced that life has meaning only if one lives as a Christian. After the war he took up the study of literature, the subject he wanted. As a student in the Sorbonne and the Catholic Institute he lived a deeply religious life. In Vienna be became a member of the Croatian students' organisation, Hrvatska. With his colleagues he prepared himself for apostolic work in his country. He and his friends became members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society and looked after the Parisian poor. At the same time he was widening his knowledge not only by making the acquaintance of many Catholics active in propagating the Faith but by attendance at the theatre and the opera. REVEALING DIARY Many a young man woukd find much in common with Ivan through reading the diary in which he recorded his doubts and vacillations, ciples of life, the memories of his seeking of stable prin- his first love, impressions about literary works he read, his religious experience and his prayers. From this Parisian diary and from his correspondence we see that he was already an adult, deeply pervaded with faith and a desire to consecrate his life to that faith.. Writing to his mother he said: "You know that my life at Vienna University, the war, my studies and finally Lourdes completely convinced me of the authenticity of the Catholic religion. Thus Jesus Christ Our Lord is the centre of my life. After graduating in Paris he came to Zagreb, where his parents already resided, in 1922. Immediately he got a job as teacher of French and German at the Archbishop's secondary school there he was to work until the end of his life. PROGRAMME OF LIFE At that time a lot of Croats were coming back to Yugoslavia after graduation, but their return was not especially noticed. But Ivan knew what he wanted and set himself a programme. The six years of his work in Zagreb were characterised by unselfish love of God and his fellows. (To be continued)
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