The Great Exile
1. God is the great exile. The majority of
mankind have banished Him from public and private life. They do not want
Him anymore; they do not even think of Him. There is even a minority
which hates and curses Him. It is true that there are still faithful and
generous communities, like oases in a vast and arid desert, which love
God and even dedicate themselves to His service. But the great majority
ignore Him. If they remember Him sometimes on important occasions, they
do so vaguely and as a matter of form. They think of God as if He were a
distant Being Who is not interested in their activities. Obviously,
therefore, men no longer live the life of God. They live mechanically
and obtusely, devoid of spiritual enlightenment or thought of Heaven.
Their lives are like those of blind moles which reside in darkness
beneath the ground without any desire to see the light of day. Bound to
the earth as they are, they are afraid of the great concepts of
eternity, the immortality of the soul, the last judgment, Heaven and
Hell. "Since men's natural inclinations are towards worldly things,"
wrote Pope Pius XII, "his inability to understand the things of the
Spirit of God is unfortunately aggravated in our times by the entire
nature of his surroundings. Very often God is neither denied nor cursed,
it is rather as if He were not there at all. There is constant and open
propaganda in favour of a worldly life without God. Men live and die as
if there were no such realities as God, redemption, or the Church."
(Discourses XI, 14) This is, unfortunately, a true picture. The image of
God is no longer seen in created things, in the arrangement of the
universe, in the structure of the family and of society. All that men
see is a great machine, but they do not wish to consider by whom it is
set in motion. There is no longer any appreciation of God nor of His
law; even the sense of sin has gone. Once the idea of God as the supreme
lawgiver and judge has been taken away, men sin without shame and
without restraint. Sin becomes an industry, a dishonourable business
carried on by means of the press, cinema, television; and all the media
of so-called modern civilisation.
Are you a victim of this
unhealthy trend? What place does God hold in your mind and in the course
of your life? We are heading for inevitable ruin if we allow ourselves
to be swept away by the corruption of the world. Remember the
frightening words of Jesus in the company of His disciples. “Not for the
world do I pray,” He said, “but for those whom thou hast given me,
because they are thine.” (John 17:9) Without Jesus, the world is racing
towards utter destruction. It is terrifying, but that is the way it is.
2. Let us turn away from this spectacle of a corrupt and corrupting
world and raise our fearful gaze towards Mary. What a contrast! She was
wholly pure and beautiful. Her mind was always in contact with God. Her
heart was full of the love of God and of her neighbour, whose redemption
from the slavery of sin she ardently desired to achieve by co-operating
with her divine Son. All her desires and actions were in harmony with
the will of God, so that she lived completely in God. Let us think about
ourselves. What place has Jesus in our approach to life? Let us try and
think of Him more often. Let us meditate on the eternal truths, on the
commandments of God and on the precepts of the Church which He has
founded. Let us endeavour to make all our actions conform with these
commandments. Above all, let us seek to love God more and more, and let
us pray constantly for those countless souls who ignore and reject Him.
Then we shall be content in the midst of the trials of this world, for
we shall have God in our hearts.
3. Holy Mary, my Mother, grant
that God may rule my mind and that you may be always in my thoughts.
Help me to live always in the presence of God and to dedicate all my
thoughts, desires and affections to Him. Grant that all the actions of
my poor life may be in accordance with His Will. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment