Sunday 3 February 2013

God can make better saints . Charles de Foucauld


Monday, 04 February 2013
Monday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time

Mark 5:1-20.
.... But he would not permit him but told him instead, "Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you." v.29
Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed. 

Commentary of the day : 
Blessed Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916), hermit and missionary in the Sahara - Meditations on the Gospels, no.194 

"Go home to your family and announce to them
all that the Lord in his pity has done for you"
When we want to follow Jesus, don't let us be surprised if he doesn't allow us to do so straight away or even if he never allows us to do so... Indeed, his eyes see further than ours: he doesn't just want our own good but everyone's...

Certainly, to share in his life with and like the apostles is a blessing and a grace and we should always strive to come close to this imitation of his life. But that is no more than an outward grace.

By filling us with grace interiorly God can make better saints of us without this exact imitation... than with it. By increasing faith, hope and charity in us he can make us far more perfect in the world or in a mitigated [religious] Order than we would be in the desert or in a strict Order... 

If God doesn't allow us to follow him we should neither be surprised nor afraid nor saddened about it but say to ourselves that he is treating us like the Gerasene and has very wise and hidden reasons for it. What is needed is that we obey him and throw ourselves into his will. Besides..., maybe Jesus allowed the Gerasene to join the apostles some months or years later. 

Let us always hope, as far as opportunity allows, to lead the life that is most perfect in itself and, for the time being, let us lead perfectly the life Jesus gives us, the one where he wants us to be. Let us live in it as he would live himself if his Father's will placed him there. Let us do everything there as he would do it if his Father had put him in that situation... True perfection is to do the will of God.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I understand that this isn't related to your post, but passing on the message:

Dear friend,

ROSARY TOMORROW, 5th February, 12 am GMT, FOR THE DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE

Tomorrow (5th of February), the first bill proposing same-sex marriage is going to be heard in British Parliament. I ask you to join me, and many others, in the praying of a rosary tomorrow to ask for Our Lady's intercession in this. We are aiming to pray together at 12 am, noon (GMT) tomorrow. Pray whatever you are able to do - a decade, a Mystery, the full Rosary, even a short prayer to Our Lady -to beg for her help.

It is our hope that if Catholics pray together for this, we can gain Our Lady's intercession in this dark hour.

Please pass the message on any way you can! Email, blog, text, social media. 12 am tomorrow - a worldwide rosary for the defense of marriage.

God Bless.

Maria Kolbe