To Want To Love Him

Saint Anthony of Padua

F A I T H M A T T E R S

St. Anthony of Padua~ Dayton, Ohio E-Brief

4/24/2015

In this Sunday's Gospel we hear Jesus preach how he is the Good Shepherd, and how a good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Although Christ is The Good Shepherd, we all are shepherds of our own little flocks as parents, educators, church group leaders, managers, etc. Are you taking good care of your sheep? Would you lay down your life for one of them? In this issue of Faith Matters we have a beautiful example of one such shepherd who did lay down his life for his sheep. See Fr. Emil Kapaun's story below. Even if God is not calling you to be as heroic as Fr. Kapaun, he it still asking you to love him and serve him. If you're unsure of how to do that, read the article below, "To Want to Love Him."

To Want to Love Him

We all make mistakes. What we ought to do is to try to profit by them. How am I to find out what God wants me to do? St. Paul said: "Lord, what wouldst Thou have me do?" If we say this from our hearts Our Lord never refuses an answer. Some people never do ask it. Others don't ask with perfect sincerity. They are not determined to do whatever He should ask them. We need never be afraid. If we really want to please God we shall do so. St. Thomas Aquinas, on being asked the shortest way to love God, said: "To want to love Him." If we want to overcome pride, obstinacy, sloth, we shall do so. If in the past I have been conceited and selfish. If I want to overcome these faults in the future, I can do so. We cannot all be in Debrett. We cannot all be intimate with the aristocracy. We seem, many of us, to consider that those laws which hold good in social life apply also to the spiritual life. That it is only a certain select few who are really called upon to love God, to become intimate with Our Lord. That for the ordinary mortal such an idea is pure presumption. We look up to loving God as we would look up to Mont Blanc. The eternal snows bathed in sunshine, radiant, stupendous, magnificent, but inaccessible and unapproachable. And God is every hour trying to draw you nearer to Him, and you are trying to draw back. "Lord, what wouldst Thou have me do?" First, to be satisfied with your lot in life. Not to want to be richer, cleverer, prettier. Who is responsible for every detail of your life? God. If you are discontented, it is, in plain English, rebellion against God's Will. Find me the person who is absolutely satisfied and you will find a saint. Let us make it a rule always to try and be satisfied. What an effect it would have on our lives. Wet or fine, ill or well, rich or poor. Don't blame God. And about my spiritual state? I ought to be eager to get on; but even that I should leave in His hands. Be satisfied even with your spiritual state. If God does not want you to go forward more quickly than you are doing, do not wish to do so. He does not wish us to become saints in a day. He wishes a virtue to grow. Acting up to grace means doing the easy things that come our way, doing them well, and doing them humbly because they are His Will. Thus do we become saints. In his fifth chapter St. John tells us how Our Lord cured the man who had lain for no less than thirty-eight years by the pool, waiting to be the first into the water after the Angel had stirred it. When we think of the years we have lived and the little we have accomplished, may we not justly compare ourselves with that poor man? Year after year he fails to reach the water first and, heaving a sigh, hopes for better luck next time. Year after year we have been slack in the service of God. Year after year we refuse to listen to His constant appeals to us to be better. Are we not waiting for the moving of the water? When God sends His Angel to touch the pool of our soul, in which He should be, but is not always, mirrored, should we not listen to Him? Do we not often say: "It is hardly of any use my trying to reach the pool of God's grace. I may as well lie here. Others always get there first. I am too slow and dull to try. I have little belief in His love for and interest in me." We ought to say: "After all, it is not so difficult to love God. If He laid down His life for me, He must love me a little bit. If not a single thought passes through my mind that has not passed through God's mind, does it not show He cares for me?" Remorse is the lover's expostulation for not having trusted more. There is only one person who can teach us to love God, that is God Himself. If you do not think Him lovable, you cannot love Him. Religion is the service of God, is love of God. He is everything that is likable, lovable, and easy to get on with. If you think Him haughty, far away and unapproachable, you invest Him with unlovable qualities and you will not love Him. The Devil says: "You are unfitted for His service, a coward. He offered you a mortification; you did not take it. You are weary in well-doing. You are not one of the elite called to Divine love." He wishes us to think of our Master as hard, difficult to please; that we must for ever be on our best behavior. How different to the Apostles, who were so completely at home with Him. What is the talisman for the future? It is to have a true opinion of Our Lord. Not to think Him difficult, pompous, hard, but generous, willing, ever eager to forgive and always finding more to pity than to blame in us. Ask Our Lord to help us to know Him, for to know Him is to love Him. -taken from Words of Encouragment by Rev. D. Considine, S. J.

Be Inspired by Fr. Emil Kapaun's Story

Have you heard of Fr. Emil Kapaun? He's only the most highly-decorated chaplain in U.S. military history. And that's not even the most amazing aspect of his life story. Click on the image above to watch his story. Or click here to read more, or here to see his Medal of Honor Ceremony.

Message of the Week

"What are You, Lord? Under what image can my heart recognize You? Truly, You are life; You are truth; You are Goodness; You are Holiness; You are eternity; You are everything good! O man, why do you roam about so far in search of good things for soul and body? Love the one Good, in whom all goods are contained, and that will satisfy you!"

~ St. Anselm