God is Love and Love can achieve anything – even calling non-believers back to Faith…
I have been praying over the last few days for people who have no faith.
Recently, I was speaking to someone I love very much who refuses to acknowledge God and during the course of our conversation, it occurred to me that there is a terrible gaping hole in this person’s life that could not ever be filled with anything no matter how hard they search until they surrender to God.
And my question is, how is it possible to surrender to God when one refuses to acknowledge (at least publicly) His Holy existence?
This is a problem that has plagued me very much in recent months, and for this reason I have prayed very much for this soul and for all of the similar souls known to those who pray with me.
How terrible is my burden of sorrow for those souls who refuse to use their eyes to see… How I long for their salvation. How I long for their rest… And if I am saddened by their lack of faith, imagine God… Imagine His sorrow and His longing…
In my very limited experience, there is little merit to be gained from engaging in debate about the matter with people who are determined not to believe, because as Saint Thomas Aquinas tells us, “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”
This does not mean that I do not discuss my Beloved in the ordinary course of my daily life with these souls, it means rather, that I do not bother to use reason to prove His existence to them. Reason is pointless to one who will not see t believe.
Instead… I use love.
For there is great love to be found in God. A love more terrible and more overwhelming than anything a mere human mind could seek to fathom. For God is LOVE itself.
Perhaps, if I could live that love, it would be God who would shine forth from me – and THAT would be what others see and through THAT they could believe. For that Love of God would so overshadow every weak and human part of me, that there would be nothing left of me to see, instead there would only be God’s Holy Light.
I have always been taught that our faith is a gift from God. It is Grace. It is not within our power to grant this faith unto ourselves, it is only within our power to accept this gift, to accept this grace, and the believe…
Scott Hahn in his book, “The Creed” uses the analogy of a stained-glass window to explain this concept of faith. From the outside, a stained-glass window looks grey and dull and covered in lead. It is only when standing inside the church with the light of the sun streaming in that such a window becomes a colourful artwork suffused in light. That light is Grace, and when we position ourselves in God’s presence, by choosing to live our lives within the bounds that God provides for us, within His Church, we can see the true miracle of existence. It is then, and only then that we can believe…
Months ago, I was speaking with one of my sisters about the experience of our family through our prayers for our niece when bizarrely, most of our family were reborn in faith. Why now? Why all of a sudden? Why so many of us? My sister said plainly, it often happens in families… Look at the Wahlberg family.
Last year I read an interesting article published in the Catholic Weekly, that outlined the process of Jim Wahlberg’s conversion. Jim Wahlberg is the older brother of the actor, Mark Wahlberg. Jim, like Mark was convicted of crime and spent time in prison. And like Mark he became involved in gangs and spent his teenage years as a homeless alcoholic. While he was incarcerated, Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta visited his prison. She attended Mass with the prisoners, kneeling right next to them on the prison floor, and not sitting away form them in a chair. It was this encounter – this experience, with this tiny Albanian nun – that changed Jim’s world. In kneeling fearlessly beside the prisoners, Saint Mother Teresa showed them that she loved them as human beings. Jim spoke of the profound effect this love had on his entire life in his memoir, “The Big Hustle”…
“For the first time in my life I saw the face of Christ. The face of love. I couldn’t stop looking at the kindness and gentleness in her face. I looked at her and for the first time in my life I saw true humility. I saw love. I saw saintliness. After Mass she told the inmates, ‘Remember that God loves you tenderly. I will pray for you. I will not forget you. I love you. God Bless you.’”
The Wahlberg siblings, are not saints. There is no soul alive on this Earth who is a Saint because sanctity is achieved through eternal salvation… But, there are people, like Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who are an example of the work of Grace upon the soul. They are an example of what love can do…
For love can do all things… Because Love is God and God is Love… Because nothing is impossible to God, nothing is impossible for Love.
People like Jim Wahlberg “…who met Saint Teresa of Calcutta often remarked that she was the most beautiful woman they’d ever met—not because she looked like a cover model (she didn’t), but because the love of Christ shone forth from her weathered, wrinkled face.” (Scott Hahn, “Hope to Die”).
Please God, let those who I love, see YOUR Love through me. Let YOUR Love shine out and illuminate all the world, so that all will bow down and believe and all will worship YOUR Holy Name…
For GOD IS LOVE and Love can achieve anything. It can even call the unbelievers back to faith…
What comfort and hope I have through my belief in that!
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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