(I asked our own Phillip Frank to write a piece to hearten us in these days in which, as he says, the world has gone mad. Phil has recently been through a season of personal storms. About the time Hurricane Irma passed through, his mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. In this month which our Church has set aside to remember our loved ones who have gone before us, we pray for the repose of his mother’s soul. We pray, too, for the repose of all the souls of TNRS family and friends who have, recently, made their Final Journey Home. Charlie prayed in the most beautiful way when commenters sought prayer for a loved one who had passed. He requested that the soul would be welcomed into the Kingdom and that s/he would become an intercessor for us as we proceed through the Storm. May all whom we know and love in the Great Cloud of Witnesses become such intercessors for us in this sobering time. ~Beckita)
A young mother from our church was asking me about how to keep her children pure in these times. She was frustrated at the thought that her daughters would make the same mistakes she had when she was young and would end unhappy like she was as a single parent raising two children in this crazy, messed up world. I told her that no matter how hard she tried, temptations of the world would find them and they would then choose to follow the righteousness they were taught or the world. Proverbs 22:6 says to “train up a child in the ways of God and they will return to it when they are old.”
In her fear of how to keep her children safe and not really knowing how to accomplish it, I reminded her that Jesus told His disciples that for man alone salvation is impossible but with God all things are possible. (Matt 9:26) Despite her weak efforts, God would make sufficient what she lacked. Further, I said she needed to TRUST God and release her worry to hope, then train up her children to the best of her ability and live a good life as a witness to them, then, God would make sufficient her weakness (My grace is sufficient) for in weakness (our acceptance that God is really in charge) we (He) are strong. When Jesus told those He cured “your faith healed you” He was referring to the fact that they “relented” their will to Him and opened themselves to trust Him. Faith leads to hope (trust) then to love which is eternal (heaven). We reach into eternity (heaven) when we do the will of God (thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven). Love, then, casts out all fear as our faith, hope and love stabilize us in this world gone mad.
When Jesus washed the feet of the apostles, He was taking a position of the least among them, despite being their leader, to help them realize humility (for I am meek and humble of heart). It was the enemy who sowed the temptation in us to “be someone” but Jesus came and took the lowest possible position among us – a slave. “Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave.” (Phil 2:7) He did this to bring us back to the realization that we are children… His children! And that, like children, obedience, trust and not worrying are the correct behavior of a child of God.
“It will be the Great Miracle of light blinding Satan… The torrential flood of blessings about to jolt the world must begin with the small number of the most humble souls.” – Our Lady to Elizabeth Kindelmann <http://www.theflameoflove.org/>http://www.theflameoflove.org
The tragedy of this life is that we all suffer. That is our lot from the Fall of Adam and Eve and a combined condition of humanity’s spiritual link to one another as the Body of Christ. But we also gain through this Body. Just like a physical body that profits as a whole from good nutrition, rest and peace of mind, the Body of Christ gains merit, goodness and even physical relief by the good acts of its members. We must be prepared to give “reasons for your hope.” (1 Peter 13:15) And to do so “in season and out of season.“(2 Tim 4:2).No good deed goes unrewarded just as no evil deed goes unpunished. We, who are in the “know” of God’s grace and goodness, carry much responsibility for the good which comes into the world. We are like dikes that allow water to flow into a desert. When we are open, much flows through us to green up the parched lands. But when we are closed, the earth is dry and barren. If we, who then receive so much, refuse to open ourselves to the life-giving graces which can flow through us by our “prayers, works, joys and sufferings” and, instead, become too attached to something or someone or shy away from the sufferings God sends us or if we are spiritually lazy, we should not be surprised when everything around us is turning to dust!
What is most acceptable to God are acts that involve no self-interest, whatsoever, and that we do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. Actions done solely out of love for God are sacred deeds that bring eternal blessings. “So you also, when you shall have done all these things that are commanded you, say: We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which we ought to do.” (Luke 17:10) As God is whole and complete (“I am the beginning and the end.” (Rev 22:13), we profit Him nothing by our existence and are incapable of loving Him as He truly deserves. But He gave us each other (His Mystical Body) to fulfill that which cannot be fulfilled for us by Him – “love one another, as I have loved you;” ” and forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us.” “See how they love one another.” “For the sake of the body of Christ, they complete what is still lacking in His afflictions.” (Col 1:24)
So for the sake of the Body of Christ, we must remain OPEN in these times to allow God His chance to save as many souls as He can. We must not “ refuse to pay attention, and turn a stubborn shoulder and stop our ears from hearing.“(Zech 7:11) when it is hard to forgive and forget. I see a great division among those of us professing faith and those opposed to it. We must be mindful, always, that we, too, are worthy of death because of our sinfulness and are saved from this fate by God Himself. “Therefore, you are without excuse, every one of you who passes judgment. For by the standard by which you judge another you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the very same things.” (Rom 2:1) We are to pity and love our enemies and pray for their salvation, realizing that but for the grace of God, we would be just like them and we actually are just like them in many ways. The mystery of why God allowed the enemy to dwell among us has always troubled me but the parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matt 13:24) has given me insight into how Our Lord expects those of us who are “in the world but not of the world” to bring light to His people. God allows sinners to dwell alongside His faithful ones, not to punish them, but to bring light into the darkness. It is we, His faithful, who are to be a sign of contradiction to the weeds. As our “roots” grow entangled among the weeds, we may pull some of them up and out of perdition along with us when the harvester brings us home.
My mother was sent to the hospital the day before hurricane Irma rolled into Florida. The next day, the doctors diagnosed her with late stage pancreatic cancer and because of her age and physical limitations, treatment was not an option. The nurses on staff cried for her when they heard this. Why? Because my mother was sweet and loving, wheat among the weeds in this life and “entangled” herself up with everyone she met, even those she only knew for ONE DAY!
“Though He constrains Himself against compelling our will, God manages the divine economy so that every event, every chance encounter, calls us to Him.” (Charlie Johnston) Being a sign of hope is to be that chance encounter with someone who needs a chance. Growing alongside the weeds, we learn to love and care for them despite their offenses and if they don’t pray, we can pray in their stead. They, in turn, learn to love and care for us… and will recognize God dwelling in us. St. Faustina, in her diary, Divine Mercy in My Soul, captures this relationship importance. “Although a sinful person is at the point of death, the merciful God gives the soul that interior vivid moment, so that if the soul is willing, it has the possibility of returning to God thus making use of all the prayers that other souls offer to God for them.”
Jesus set His eyes on the goal, was not put to shame and felt joy in what He was accomplishing by the cross. Despite the great suffering He was going through, He experienced joy in its accomplishment, a parallel which we can ourselves feel as we suffer the Storm and await the Rescue with its light already piercing the darkness. Our own Francesca here at TNRS feels this distinction: “Fortunately we walk by faith and not by sight, and so the prayers of God’s people, our Guardian Angels, the tender embrace of our Immaculate Mother, and the hope to see Jesus brings needed mercy, and I do not despair, although despair is all I can feel.” She does not despair because she has replaced it with trust and hope which she does not “feel” but “believes” through her faith. Here people, is a sign of contradiction and a true disciple of TNRS. She becomes a “sign of hope” herself when she practices what she preaches. And with the Storm, God has given us ample chance to practice!
I see the parable of the workers (Matt 20:1-16) like this: The land owner hires the workers to work his vineyard. The first to be hired, work all day (their entire lives) to fulfill the job given them by the land owner (God). But God, loving all humanity, sees those standing around in the market place (the world) doing nothing (not tending to what they were created to be) and asks them to join those who are already working (the faithful) and offers to pay them what is right (eternal life). This story has two lessons for me. First, God is “generous” with His love and salvation. He makes the point that those who worked the longest in His vineyard “deserve” the pay agreed upon but, because of His generosity, He can also give those who do not “deserve” it the same. He makes the point that it is none of our business what He does with His money (grace) despite our “jealousy” of His mercy and love for those we think do not “deserve” it! He makes the point that the work does not actually give us salvation but His generosity does. So the second lesson is this: despite our ideas on who deserves to go to heaven or not, God will, in the end, save us all if we, even at the last moment, “agree” to work in His vineyard. “God’s mercy sometimes touches the sinner at the last moment in a wondrous and mysterious way. Outwardly, it seems as if everything were lost, but it is not so. The soul, illumined by a ray of God’s powerful final grace, turns to God in the last moment with such a power of love that, in an instant, it receives from God forgiveness of sin and punishment.” (St. Faustina) For this soul the “work” is its final “turning to God” and then God’s grace “is sufficient” for it to receive the “day’s pay” of eternal life. Thus, we all enter heaven on equal ground, not because of our labors’ equality, but because of our God’s mercy and love for His children. This is why “the first will be last and the last will be first.” We do not go into heaven in a straight line, first to last, but all together at once as a single unit, as the Body of Christ!
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