When you read Saint Paul, a week after reading Saint James, you should feel convicted. We all know, we’re not patient, and we’re not kind. Love does not envy but we do. Do we put on airs? Yes. Do we boast? Are we proud? Yes. Unfortunately so. We self-seek, we are prone to anger and keep a running tally of wrongs. As a society, we cherish revenge and come uppances, and karma, hoping that the universe will inflict what we perceive as just deserts on those who annoy or bother us. We do not protect, we do not trust, and we fail often. What’s more, we don’t do the works either. Do we forgive? Do we ever release our rights to hold onto our grievances? Absent grace, no. Without humility, no.
Ours is a generation that celebrates its unfaith, it’s denial of the reality and necessity of transcendent love.
The pews remain empty.
It explains why we have so little energy as a people for the present, much less the future. Without faith, without trust in our Lord, we will not embrace His gifts.
We will find only water, not wine. The loaves and fishes cannot feed the five thousand, and sins, all our sins remain.
I do not believe this, but I see it lived out in our day. Everywhere, there are sheep that do not know they need a shepherd. Christ groans on the cross for each of us, for all of us. He gives us the means to cooperate in our own and the world’s salvaton, by self-sacrifice, by fasting, by giving alms, and prayer.
Our society needs hope. It’s starving for peace, for kindness, for healing, for hope, for the serenity we do not know, except that we know we need it. So today, decide to say a little pray, for the healing of the world, and peace in all hearts, and then do the hard part –examining one’s own soul, for indications of where one falls short. We are each of us, grasping and gasping for God, and not realizing that we can drown in this world. Indeed, many in this age, struggle with deep despair because this world is all they breathe.
The solution is more faith, and being deliberate in our hope. is our soul as thirsting for the Lord, as the world thirsts for healing? Do we understand that God entrusted to each of us with the stewardship of the souls of this age, and the age to come? Saint Francis of Assisi poured out his life, and we draw from His example to this day. So also, we are to live in such a manner, that those who come after us, who need support, can ask for our intersession by name.
When I began this piece, I titled it, “Who should we not love” because the answer is, there is no one, we should not reflect God’s love to, no one we should withhold mercy from, no one we should not forgive, no one we should not offer our prayers for. There is no limit to how long we should love, because God is love, and God being infinite, means that love likewise, should extend out to eternity. That way, we can do the works faith and love impells us to do, and be all the things Saint Paul calls us to –without wearying, because we will be drawing from the infinite well that is God’s love, and pouring it out over all we encoutner.
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