Dec 29 Fri
Our Lord comes determined to seek us out, after we were lost.
How often we have separated ourselves from God! How often we have failed to hear his voice - the voice of the one who heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.
We must hasten to meet him, ready to start again and to respond to his never-failing Love.
“A day of salvation has arrived for us. Once again, we can hear the whistling of the divine shepherd, his affectionate call: I have called you by name. Like our mother, he calls us by our name, even by our affectionate family nickname. There in the very depths of our soul he calls, and we must answer: Here I am, for you called me. Here I am, determined on this occasion not to let time pass like water over the rocks, without leaving a trace."
St. Josemaría tells us that “what we have to try to do is to get to heaven. If we don't, nothing is worthwhile. To reach heaven, faithfulness to Christ's teaching is absolutely essential. And to be faithful, we must strive doggedly against whatever blocks our way to eternal happiness."
“I know that the moment we talk about fighting we recall our weakness and we foresee falls and mistakes. God takes this into account. As we walk along, we will inevitably raise dust on our way; we are creatures and full of defects. I would say that they need to be there: they are the shadow which, in our soul, helps to highlight, by contrast, God's grace and our resolve to respond to God's kindness. And this contrast of light and darkness will make us human, humble, understanding and generous."
The response is required from us: to begin over and over again; not in a vague manner, but in the main points of our interior struggle, enthusiastically.
“Let's not deceive ourselves: in our life we will encounter excitement and victory along with deprivation and defeat. Such has always been the earthly pilgrimage of Christians, even of those we venerate on the altars. … The true-life stories of Christian heroes resemble our own experience: they fought and won; they fought and lost. And then, repentant, they returned to the fray."
To find Jesus, we have to keep starting over and over again. We need to be continually engaged in a struggle to improve. To stand still is to fall back. St Augustine says, “I am still running, I am still advancing. I am still walking. I am still on the way. I am still exerting myself. I have not yet arrived. In the same way, if you are walking, if you are exerting yourself, if you are thinking of the future, then forget the past, do not glance back, or you may remain at the spot where you turned to look back. If you say, ‘Enough,’ you are lost."
Video: