Dear Friends,
The words you have read and/or heard are, I believe, powerful reminders to us that each of us can stand as a David against the Goliath's of our times. Focus on what seeks to beat you down or even what can ruin the person you are. There may be struggles with addictions which can twist a person's spiritual life, for sure, but which can alter that a person's mind and personality. Surely you think of every kind of drug on the markets or on the streets. Yet today there is something just as destructive. It is one particular use of the marvelous invention that is so much a part of our lives today: the computer and its key to what can destroy an individual perhaps in ways worse than drugs. It is online pornography. This is an addiction that is so difficult to remove. It has become the "fix" that has ruined not only the viewer but his/her family as well.
Our world today is much like the world of the Corinthians Paul speaks to on his visit with them. These were bright individuals whose wisdom and use of language was strong. They were recognized for their interest in learning, especially in Greek philosophy. Even St. Paul acknowledged that he was no match to their subtlety, their wisdom. Yet he spoke clearly from what was in his heart not from a carefully designed or developed philosophy. Paul was the bearer of the wisdom of God.
Let me invite you, my friends, to join with me in looking at the strength of persons like Paul, like David, who could see so clearly from his great sin to the light of Yahweh that "shines through the darkness for the upright." In our times, when we need encouragement, look to the strength of the many women and men veterans who return from the hellacious moments that totally changed their lives. These are the moments that destroyed their bodies and/or minds as they had been. These noble men and women are extraordinary examples of strength in the weakness of their mangled or ruined bodies and/or minds. Now they do not fear that damage brought to them. Like St. Paul and David, their "physical weaknesses"are the sources of their greatest strength.
Surely, if these wounded warriors are models of conviction and determination that have turned their "new lives" into an overwhelming power for goodness and hope, we, too, should do all we can to turn our weaknesses, our struggles, into opportunities for grace.
Do not forget that even the slightest light of faith and hope is never overpowered by the darkest moments of our lives. Jesus is, for me and you, our Light and our Life. Let it burn brightly and give courage to our convictions.
Do not forget that even the slightest light of faith and hope is never overpowered by the darkest moments of our lives. Jesus is, for me and you, our Light and our Life. Let it burn brightly and give courage to our convictions.
Oremus pro invicem,
Fr. Milt
