Fr. Voigt, "How our "little lives" add up"
If you can trust a man in little things, then you can trust him in greater. Thus the wisdom of the ages teaches the test in which we are occupied in this world of ours. Can God trust us in the little things which He has asked that we might save our souls for the greater gift of eternal life with Him.
Now not many are rich and not many are influential but all of us have been given little lives which can be offered through the Cross of Christ to save some great souls. Yet how often we lose the sense of the little sacrifice that can change a person's world. St. Therese of the Holy Face remarks on the "little way" to her novices. God is not about to come to us with earth shaking proposals but He will come in the distressing disguise of a Sister who is crude and rude to test our charity. Little attitudes prepare us for the love of God. St. John Bosco repeated over and over that our daily duty is the penance that God asks of us. For this reason he would not allow St. Dominic Savio to place rocks and glass under his bed sheets.
To seek the extraordinary is to miss God in the ordinary events of our life in which we can find the path to heaven. Ordinary events come to us day after day challenging us to aid our neighbor who can be so boorish. What about speaking a good word to a soul that is troubled. Perhaps some soul is in need and only you can supply that special need. God works out our salvation through the small sacraments of confession and holy communion. If we are sincere and follow the words of Christ then there will be no regrets at life's end. Yet so many fail to understand the test of little things and so are caught up with the spectacular or the pleasurable. These have the distinction of losing their souls overlooking the many little opportunities each day.
In the state of hell, the soul regrets the fact that he only had to perform small actions to save his soul and he just didn't do it. He is lost and now the second regret appears. The soul is lost because it chose instead to follow the path of the world, the flesh and the devil. The soul has betrayed divinity far beyond its worth. The soul has purchased hell by its desire for passions, for some
passing pleasure. What is wrong with us that we should look upon this temporal existence as if it were more important than our eternity with God? It is the effect of spiritual ignorance which colors the infused knowledge we should have lived by. We could have been healed if we had simply turned to the Savior as the leper or the centurion in our Gospel today.
Say but the word, Lord, and our souls shall be healed. If our Lord wills our healing we will be healed but for those who neglected the little way of life and chose the temporal over the eternal there is the third regret: they shall never look upon the God who created them. They failed the test of love in this world. They become ego centered rather than God-centered. They are now the ones who wail and gnash their teeth because they failed in little things.
If only we can realize that as we make ourselves small and unimportant we become more and more important to the Lord. We will take our daily responsibility seriously. One day we will see the merciful face of Jesus Who will say to us "Euge, euge, well done" good and faithful servant because you have been faithful in a small matter enter into the joy of your master. Glory be to God we have saved our souls through the little things in our lives - courage and never fail to do the little things as well as possible. God sees.
In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Fr. Richard Voigt
Now not many are rich and not many are influential but all of us have been given little lives which can be offered through the Cross of Christ to save some great souls. Yet how often we lose the sense of the little sacrifice that can change a person's world. St. Therese of the Holy Face remarks on the "little way" to her novices. God is not about to come to us with earth shaking proposals but He will come in the distressing disguise of a Sister who is crude and rude to test our charity. Little attitudes prepare us for the love of God. St. John Bosco repeated over and over that our daily duty is the penance that God asks of us. For this reason he would not allow St. Dominic Savio to place rocks and glass under his bed sheets.
To seek the extraordinary is to miss God in the ordinary events of our life in which we can find the path to heaven. Ordinary events come to us day after day challenging us to aid our neighbor who can be so boorish. What about speaking a good word to a soul that is troubled. Perhaps some soul is in need and only you can supply that special need. God works out our salvation through the small sacraments of confession and holy communion. If we are sincere and follow the words of Christ then there will be no regrets at life's end. Yet so many fail to understand the test of little things and so are caught up with the spectacular or the pleasurable. These have the distinction of losing their souls overlooking the many little opportunities each day.
In the state of hell, the soul regrets the fact that he only had to perform small actions to save his soul and he just didn't do it. He is lost and now the second regret appears. The soul is lost because it chose instead to follow the path of the world, the flesh and the devil. The soul has betrayed divinity far beyond its worth. The soul has purchased hell by its desire for passions, for some
passing pleasure. What is wrong with us that we should look upon this temporal existence as if it were more important than our eternity with God? It is the effect of spiritual ignorance which colors the infused knowledge we should have lived by. We could have been healed if we had simply turned to the Savior as the leper or the centurion in our Gospel today.
Say but the word, Lord, and our souls shall be healed. If our Lord wills our healing we will be healed but for those who neglected the little way of life and chose the temporal over the eternal there is the third regret: they shall never look upon the God who created them. They failed the test of love in this world. They become ego centered rather than God-centered. They are now the ones who wail and gnash their teeth because they failed in little things.
If only we can realize that as we make ourselves small and unimportant we become more and more important to the Lord. We will take our daily responsibility seriously. One day we will see the merciful face of Jesus Who will say to us "Euge, euge, well done" good and faithful servant because you have been faithful in a small matter enter into the joy of your master. Glory be to God we have saved our souls through the little things in our lives - courage and never fail to do the little things as well as possible. God sees.
In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Fr. Richard Voigt