By Father Rich Tomkosky
A DEEPER CONVERSION! Are we willing to be directed by the Lord like Abram was at the age of 75?! God intervened in Abram’s life, and Abram responded. It was a “moment of visitation” as the saints call it.
Do we recognize the moment(s) of visitation by the Lord in our lives? It can come through happy joyous events, but it often comes through the mystery of the Cross: difficulties, humiliations, death, illness, loss of friendship, a dating breakup, struggling in marriage, tension with children, struggles at work, and just the overall anxiety that afflicts so many in our time, especially young people.
God doesn’t cause all these things, but He does permit them; and if we allow Him to work, it can be for the greater good of our souls. Why? Because when we come up against obstacles in life, it should make us realize that we really are not in charge of everything, and we need to cast ourselves into the loving embrace of the Blessed Trinity, in TRUST.
Remember, Jesus told us to come to Him with our burdens. Our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving call us to that. These practices are not an end in of themselves, but rather are the means to make reparation to God and neighbor for the spiritual damage our sins have caused to them and us, and to draw us into deeper union with the Triune God.
Saint Paul asks us the important question: Are you willing to bear your share of the hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from God? Or have we settled into a life of spiritual complacency? Do we go along to get along in life? Are we willing to joyfully witness to the gift of Jesus and our Catholic faith?
If we truly listen to the voice of Jesus as the Father asks us to do, that means we will bear some hardship, sometimes serious hardship. Why? Because Jesus’s way, as made known to us in the authentic teaching of the Catholic faith, is not the way of the world! It is a call to die to self, to radically love others in a life of sacrificial service, and to let Christ live in the thoughts of our mind and heart and to be shown in our real daily choices in life.
A true follower of Christ is not a wimp, but a real person of courage who is willing to go against the current of the world. DARE TO BE DIFFERENT IN CHRIST! The fruit of this is an inner abiding increasing peace and joy that turns the anxieties of life over to the Lord with Our Lady.
How does the devil try to get most of us? Gradually. He is patient in a very evil way knowing that most of us will not worship him directly. He tries to get us to turn away from God in degrees, with temptations such as: you don’t need to pray every day; you don’t need to go to Confession much, if at all – and if do go, don’t examine your conscience too deeply, get in and get out, and you don’t need to tell that priest EVERYTHING, especially the embarrassing stuff (e.g., sexual sins); of course, if you hide any serious sins the whole Confession is invalid. He doesn’t remind us of that!
He tries to trick us into thinking that it is not a big deal if we miss Sunday or Holy day Mass once in a while if we were on vacation, or tired from work, or because we were out late the night before. The bottom line is the devil tries to get us to be spiritually flabby, and our human nature already has a tendency to go that route because of the lingering effects of original sin. He tries to convince us that our spiritual life is no big deal: that God loves us no matter what we do and that we don’t really have to make a strong effort to become holy. It is a BIG LIE!
Yes, God loves us, but because He loves us, He wants us to share in His Life; and that can only happen if we are willing to turn away from sin! If we don’t make a strong effort to turn away from sin, the end result is we spin our wheels spiritually year after year and make little if any progress; and when we die, we can only hope by God’s mercy to make it into Purgatory – maybe barely at that!
The Lord wants better for us. He gives us the mystery of the Transfiguration to prepare us for the difficulty of the Cross(s) of life. But it is worth it, for if we embrace our Crosses with love, unite them with Jesus, and live daily a life of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, the Holy Spirit will transform us over time in holiness, and we will be drawn into the eternal communion of the Father, Son, and Spirit even now, leading to the fullness of life in Heaven – which the mystery of the Transfiguration points to. God bless you.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and the Pastor of Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.
