81. Second Thursday of Lent

Meditations no. 127 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

God is the one who makes us holy.

One by one we have been called by God to share in the glory of his holiness as his adopted children. Out of justice, and because we are his children, we gladly accept the need to work in this world for many years, because Jesus has few friends here below. Let us not turn away, our Father exhorts us, from our duty to live our whole life - to the last drop - in the service of God and his Church.

Nevertheless, the road is long, like that of the Israelites in the desert, and we often find our strength disappearing and our path becoming steep and difficult. Sometimes, above all after a period of prolonged interior struggle, a feeling of weariness and indifference could come over us, and open the gates to the temptation to stop fighting. Then we have to react and seek help immediately, as the Church invites us to do: God of love, bring us back to you. Send your Spirit to make us strong in faith and active in good works.

Why do we sometimes feel such weariness and even discouragement? Perhaps without realizing it, we may have been trying to build up our holiness through our own efforts instead of relying on our Lord. Then he allows a state of interior loneliness and listlessness, in order to make us understand that holiness without God does not make sense. The prophet Jeremiah warns us of this danger: Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.

The prophet’s words urge us to purify our intention once more, to make our faith more theological, and to have our hope firmly set on our Lord’s loving help. Our Father encourages us: We have a clear guide, which we should not and cannot do without. We are loved by God, and we will let the Holy Spirit act in us and purify us, so that we can embrace the Son of God on the Cross, and rise with him, because the joy of the Resurrection is rooted in the Cross.

Are we still going to place our trust in ourselves, in our own worth, and in the strength of our own will? It is true that God has given us some talents. Yet if we try to use them in order to scale the heights of holiness by ourselves, we will only meet with difficulties; for we would be trying to attain a supernatural goal by human means.

Let us always turn to God our Lord for help. Let us ask him never to allow us to leave him; instead, may we always struggle with our hope set on his almighty power. This is a large part of the inner conversion which God, the Father of goodness, wants to effect in us.

Trusting in God gives security and happiness.

Holiness does not depend on us alone. It depends primarily on God. It is the grace of God which sanctifies us, although it must be accompanied by our own good will and personal effort. We have to trust that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion, accomplishing in us both the will and the deed, as long as we do not turn away from his grace. As Sacred Scripture says: Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.

I am not and never have been a pessimist, our Father insists, for the faith teaches me that Christ has conquered once and for all He has given us, as a pledge of his victory, a command which is also a commitment: “Fight”. We Christians have a commitment of love to the calling of divine grace, which we have freely accepted, an obligation which urges us to fight tenaciously. We know that we are as weak as other men, but we cannot forget that if we use the means available to us, we will become salt and light and leaven of the world; we will be the consolation of God.

People in love always keep their spirits young and lively. They never get tired of fighting, because their hope is what nourishes and drives them, and is the source of their happiness and fruitfulness. From now on, be in a hurry to fall in love. Love itself will prevent us from complaining and protesting. For we put up with setbacks often enough, but then we feel sorry for ourselves, so that not only do we waste God’s grace, but we also tie his hands and make it harder for him to ask us for things in the future: Hilarem enim datorem diligit Deus. God loves the cheerful giver, the person who gives with the spontaneity of a loving heart, without all the fuss and bother of one who gives himself as if he were doing God a favour.

Certainly there will always be difficulties. But our Lord invites us to lift our gaze towards the prize that awaits us. The Gospel reminds us of the poor man Lazarus who trusted in God till his death, and was carried by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. When the rich man from his place of torment begged for mercy, Abraham answered: Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. All the beggar’s sufferings had disappeared in a moment, to be replaced by infinite, eternal happiness. St John Chrysostom comments: Therefore, when we are oppressed by great tribulations and sickness, let us remember Lazarus and accept the evil things in our lives with joy.

Let us always struggle, then, with our hope set on Almighty God and his great mercy. Let us heed our Father’s advice: Trust fully in God and have a greater desire each day never to run away from him.

God wants us to correspond to his grace, to exert all the effort we are capable of.

Today, as yesterday, heroism is expected of the Christian. A heroism in great struggles, if the need arises. Normally, however, heroism lies in the little skirmishes of the day. When you put up a continuous fight, with love, in apparently insignificant things, the Lord is always present at your side, as a loving shepherd

God takes our salvation even more seriously than we do. But since none of us will be saved against our will, because we are free, he wants us to desire what is good. We should desire to be holy. We must never lose sight of the fact that God requires our cooperation in building up our sanctity.

God loves us more than we love ourselves, and he gives us the means to achieve what is good for us. Yet it is also true that we need to make use of those means. We need to be ready to attack all the evil shoots we discover. Faith shows us that all our excuses are empty. Our determination to persevere in this resolution of Love is, moreover, an obligation of justice. This obligation, common to all Christians, implies a constant battle. The entire tradition of the Church has described Christians as milites Christi: soldiers of Christ. Soldiers who bring serenity to others while continually fighting against their own bad inclinations. Sometimes, because we are short on supernatural outlook, in effect short on faith, we do not want to hear any talk of life on earth as a kind of war. We maliciously insinuate that if we think of ourselves as milites Christi, soldiers of Christ, there is a danger that we might use the faith for earthly purposes, bringing pressure to bear, creating little isolated groups. This very naive line of thought is completely illogical and usually goes hand in hand with cowardice and love of comfort.

On the contrary, as children of God, we understand our struggle according to the Magisterium of the Church, as a war each of us makes on himself. It is a constantly renewed effort to love God better, to root out selfishness, to serve all men. Turning your back on this conflict, no matter what the excuse, means surrendering before you have begun to fight Anyone who does so is brought low, without faith, depressed in his heart, blown this way and that by miserable pleasures.

Our spiritual combat in the presence of God and of all our brothers in the faith is a necessary result of being a Christian. So if you do not fight, you are betraying Jesus Christ and the whole Church, his Mystical Body.

On the one hand, we have to struggle as if everything depended on us; and on the other, we must turn to God with the confidence that comes from knowing that our petition will be heard. Then our Lord will be pleased with our cheerful, confident struggle. Our trust in God, and our personal effort, are the two hinges which support our generous, heroic daily struggle. With our eyes fixed on Jesus and Mary, let us remember what our Father says: If everything seems to be fading away, if your spiritual edifice totters, find your support in filial confidence in Jesus and Mary -the sure and steady rock on which you should have built from the beginning.