There is, of course, a good deal of truth to this view. Were it not true at least to some extent it would not be so widely distributed and so persistently transmitted from generation to generation. Like many other verities, however, it needs to be put in relation to other truths in order to find its proper expression in life. The complete person must not only have a certain assurance and assertiveness, he or she must also be compassionate, considerate and just to others. Without such virtues men live as tyrants and slaves, dominating the weak and subject to the strong.
Christian society requires the strong to serve the weak and defend the helpless.
This is a higher manliness than aggressive domination. This is the kind of man that Jesus exemplified and of which he was the perfect model. He taught by his own life that love is aggressive against evil and lends strength to the fight against vice and injustice. The truly free and mature man, as he showed, is gentle with the weak and the young and strong against those who dominate others. St. Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans we have just heard, passes on this same message from a different point of view.