Like Jonah and the people of Nineveh, like Simon and Andrew, we are all faced with a choice. Do we want to continue to live our lives as we have been, or do we want to turn to God and accept His will and His plan for us? Are we willing to stop our old ways of thinking and acting and accept His teaching, and in the process give up old patterns of behavior, and follow Him unreservedly? If we are, the time is now, because as Saint Paul tells us, the world in its present form is passing away.
It is not an easy thing to make this kind of radical change to our thinking and acting. It is certainly not something we can hope to accomplish on our own. We need the help of God’s grace, each and every one of us, all day, every day. We need to be willing, if necessary, to walk away from things (and perhaps sometimes people) that previously brought us comfort or maybe even joy. We need to recognize that this is not about living in our comfort zone, but rather trusting enough in our Lord to enter into His plan fully, and to accept whatever may come of that, whether we initially like the results of that leap of faith or not. The fact is, no matter what happens, we can trust that His plan is better for our lives in the eternal than anything we could devise or dream of, and the time in between that we refer to as this life is simply a temporary space that is of far less consequence.
This is, of course, completely contrary to everything that the world teaches, and it is supposed to be. The world does not want to look to life eternal because it is too consumed with the agenda of the enemy, and its focus is therefore solely on this current existence; How to obtain as much temporal satisfaction from this brief existence as possible, with no regard to the wellbeing of others, and with greed, lust, envy, and self-satisfaction as its only concerns. This is the stuff that has brought us to where we are today. We have a society that is filled with the pursuit of pleasure at any cost, whether it be to us, or to those at whose expense it is sought. There is no regard for the good of others, there is no respect for the gift of life that God has given; It is only about what feels good now. How completely shallow and sad an existence like that is. Its fruits are unrest, depression, anxiety, isolation, and a never-ending quest for the next “fix” of what will bring fleeting pleasure to dull the foreboding that anyone would inevitably feel in such a life, because there is truly no hope of anything to come, only the desperate grasping at what is dangled before us by the one who will benefit from our destruction.
We need to make sure we walk away from such a life, with as much resolve and unequivocal devotion as that which Simon and Andrew showed when they walked away from their nets. No thought of turning back has any place in such a decision, no wanting to obtain just a bit more should distract us, because if we allow it to, we will eventually succumb to wanting more of the trinkets of the here and now and focus that much less on what will truly draw us toward actual life. We must pray for the strength to make the hard choices now, with the assurance of our Lord that it is only a brief difficulty, and one that He will help us overcome. There is no place for any priorities above this way of thinking. There is no political or ideological entity that should ever sway us from God’s teaching, because if it tries, it should be clear that it is not God who is guiding such an agenda. We are Catholics, and we are called to be saints – each and every one of us. There is no agenda outside of this that takes precedence. Our Lord has seen it all before, and has overcome it, and will do so again. We need to believe in that first and foremost, and be ready to act as part of His plan to make the needed changes happen. While the ultimate focus is on life eternal, He is always concerned with our wellbeing even in this brief existence, and we are the tools that He uses to help others in this life, if we are willing to be part of His plan. If, on the other hand, we merely spend our time lamenting the current state of things without being active in God’s plan to address the needs of those around us who are all God’s children, then we have allowed the propaganda of the enemy to place us in a state of despair that he will use to his full advantage to draw us away from God. We are all members of the body of Christ, and we must be eyes to see what needs done, the hands to effect change, and the legs to always propel us toward seeking justice, peace, and the basic needs of this current life to be met for all. We will cherish the life given, we will seek to allow it to flourish, and we will always guide it toward the life eternal that is the true destiny of every one of God’s creations.
Podcast Link
The Deacons Bench 