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As Catherine Doherty, the foundress of Madonna House often said, the heart of the difficulty in the world is not the economic, political, or cultural circumstances, but the division between good and evil, the division between life and death, a division in our own hearts.
The heart of the matter is identified in Deuteronomy where God says, I am offering you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life then, so that you and your descendants may live in the love of Yahweh, your God (Dt 30:15-20).
The domain of the inner being, called “free will,” is the sacred domain of each individual. No other person can take away from us this God-given ability to choose.
Every morning when we awake, we must choose life, choose to live, choose to love, choose to serve. We must choose every day and perhaps several times during the day, in order to grow in grace, in truth, and in the fullness of life, as promised by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Time is short and the signs of a growing confrontation between spiritual forces are everywhere.
All you have to do is pick up a newspaper or magazine or see current movies or television programs or the internet to see it.
You’ll find pornography, euthanasia, murder by abortion, children trying to blow up schools, and nations ripped to pieces by toxic division, even war.
We are in a catastrophe and, through faith, we know that God will ultimately triumph. But that triumph can be delayed, short-circuited, or watered down by the lack of fire in your heart and mine.
Many are undergoing transforming purifications. Many face pain or unspeakable fears.
But all this can be transcended, because God’s presence is coming to you every day that you are faithful to the duty of the moment and every day that you receive the living Lord in the Eucharist.
We don’t have a minute to lose. Give your life to others. Pray and see how you can truly be the hands, the feet, the eyes, the ears, the heart of Jesus Christ.
Wherever you are, you carry God, and someone is waiting to receive the love he gives you today, to pass through you to those who are desperate for a drop of living water. Pray for one another and cling with all your might to life, the life that comes from God.
No Christian today can afford to be asleep, compromised, or complacent about anything. The life and death of the globe, to say nothing of billions of souls, is at stake.
From Inflamed by Love, (2002), pp. 44, 46, 191, 192, available from MH Publications
