A MESSAGE FOR SEPTUAGESIMA
Complacency is one of the
greatest dangers we encounter in our progress towards our final end. How easy it is to just let things go, to
relax and ignore the dangers that face us and the challenges to which God
invites us to rise. As we bask today in
the comfortable satisfaction that is so alluring, suddenly the clarion call of
God’s mercy and justice sounds out! It
shatters our illusion of smug tranquility, beckoning us to respond with every
fiber of our being, that we might survive our final judgment and reap the
rewards of a Christian life well spent.
The question we must ask
ourselves today, and I repeat the word “must,”
is whether we will choose to answer God’s alarm call to action, or, as we so
often do each morning, merely hit the snooze button, and put off our
responsibilities for as long as we think
we can. But we should consider God’s alarm
more as the urgent wail of a tornado
warning—we’d better move fast before we are swept up in the vortex of a sinful
world and the devil’s clutches. We may
stand idle, but the devil doesn’t!
The householder in today’s
Gospel needs workers in his fields. It
is harvest time and all those blades of wheat, human souls every one, must be
gathered for the great judgment. When we
look around us at the great fruited plains of this world, do we see wheat, or
do we see cockle? We remember from last
week that the enemy of man is busy planting cockle among the golden grain, and
that there will be a great separation at the end times. Let’s do what we can to make sure the wheat
survives. Begin at home, and ask
yourselves: Are all my children attending
Mass on Sunday? Have I done all I can to
convince my family of the value of the true Mass and sacraments? Have I learned my own faith well enough that
I can teach it to others? Am I supporting the church enough for it to
survive financially and continue providing the sacraments for me and my loved
ones? So many questions! And many more if you give it a little
thought! Most importantly of all, Where do I stand in this gathering of the wheat? Will I find myself with the cockle, tied with
other sinners to be burned? Or can I
honestly say that I have answered God’s call?
That I am firmly resolved to reject all sinful thoughts, words and deeds
in my life? Do I truly love God with all
my heart and mind and soul and strength?
Today is the day God is
calling us to change our lives. It’s
never too late. No matter how grave the
sins of our past, no matter how deep we may be in the pits of complacency, we
know we can turn back to God today and firmly resolve to do our duty. Come, labor on!
Father Hall
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