The World Has A Right!

     I thoroughly enjoy spiritual reading.  I always feel rejuvenated and more aflame with love for the Church and Her mission after only reading a few pages.  There is something intrinsically beautiful about being Catholic and, although I could not just point to one aspect of the faith, sometimes all it takes is one topic to renew the passionate fire that burns within me!  I am currently reading a book entitled, A Mother’s Plea by Fr. Anthony Bus, CR.  This book is the journal of a priest who felt called by Our Blessed Mother to build a Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in downtown Chicago and his complete dependence on her during this journey.  One of the things I really enjoy and find refreshing about this book is how completely honest Fr. Anthony is about every aspect of not only himself, but the Church as well. 

     In Chapter 16, Father Anthony speaks about how it is our job, our duty, as Christians to make Christ known in the world.  I will share with you an excerpt from the end of this chapter that really stuck out to me.

“There can be no doubt that something is terribly wrong these days.  Something has gone awry.  The Luminous Woman is the belfry marking the last hour.  The call to sanctuary is a call to return to the burning bush.  Just as God called out to Moses from the bush engulfed in flames, He calls out to us from the fire that burns within us.  As in the time of Moses, so now in our time, God sees the affliction of His people and knows what they suffer.  He wants to set them free. Moses was sent in his time and we are sent in our time. This is the only time we have and the time is running out.  The very soul of Christianity depends on our response to being fully consumed in the fire of God’s love.  What we bring to the world is not ourselves. We bring Jesus. 

If Christians remain spectators—if they do not enter into the drama of God’s ongoing revelation of Himself in history—they deprive the world its right to the truth.  If Jesus has become an afterthought and if we show no passion for the sacred mysteries of our faith, then we have dishonored and betrayed our ancestors, the prophets and the saints, upon whose blood the Church was built.  The world deserves to see that we are who we claim to be—disciples of The Divine Mercy.  The world has the right to embrace Jesus or take Him by force” (Bolding emphasis mine) (Bus, Fr. Anthony, A Mother's Plea, Marian Press, Stockbridge, MA. 2008. Third Edition, pgs. 182-183).

     When I finished reading these last two paragraphs of the chapter, I felt reaffirmed in my vocation!  A renewed passion for the New Evangelization flooded my soul!  All I could think of was how the world did have the right to either embrace Christ or take him by force!  What good does it do if we hold on tight with an overprotective attitude to Jesus and the truths of the faith for fear of them being disgraced or defiled by others?  Jesus wasn’t afraid to teach and preach what He knew to be true!  He spoke about it freely and then when the time had come to be handed over, He didn’t fight it. The world has a right to know Jesus and His Church in all its fullness! Whether they accept it or reject and try to crucify it, who are we to keep them from Truth?  Because at the end of the day, it’s not us that we are making known by the witness of our lives: it is Jesus!

Written by Alycia