During these first few weeks of Lent, Holy Mother Church directs us to ponder the reality of our mortality and to make a serious appraisal of how we are living our lives in light of it.
Today’s reading from Divine Intimacy (#95) by Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene, OCD, brings spiritual perspective to this most important consideration. Following are a couple of nuggets that impacted me today in my time of prayer:
Father Gabriel writes:
Although death is the last, it is not the only coming of the Lord in the life of a Christian; it is preceded by many other comings whose special purpose is to prepare us for this last. Death will then be for us in the fullest sense a coming of grace.
What food for meditation these two sentences provide! They provoke us to consider the diverse ways in which we have been “visited” by the Lord already. In my own life, I can name numbers of occasions – some of them most joyful, others most sorrowful; others by means of consolation in prayer, still others in a deep aridity of spirit; some through promptings of the Holy Spirit, and yet others through a chastisement of heart. But all of them visitations nonetheless, preparing me, says this sentence, for that final coming of the Lord which will take me into eternal life.
The passage goes on:
One who has never hesitated to open his heart to all of these visits from our Lord, who has always welcomed them faithfully and lovingly, who has followed all the impulses of grace with docility, has nothing to fear from this last coming. Then the words of Jesus will sound sweetly in his ears: “Well done, good and faithful servant…enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Mt. 25:21).
Implicit here, of course, is the path one follows in preparation for life on high in Christ Jesus: a journey marked by a deep abiding love of God and conformity to His will in all things. Later in the meditation, Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene tells us this dual attitude of heart should be “the supreme norm of all our actions…”
Those seven powerful words convey a very radical thought: love of God and conformity to His will ought to be the supreme norm of all our actions. Radical indeed! Note the word all. There is no exception to it. It is totally inclusive; it means everything.
This prompts a serious examine: “Is love of God and conformity to His will the primary motivator of all I do?” An honest appraisal finds me falling way short. Maybe you, too. What can be done about it?
The answer to this question is not complicated: beg God for a deeper love of Him, a greater understanding of His Goodness, a correction of heart and mind that helps us perceive Him more truly, a movement of the Holy Spirit that illuminates our selfishness and pride and begins a process of restoration and renewal within us. A kairos moment filled with His grace.
This is the kind of visitation from the Lord we most need to experience. May it be one that marks a new beginning in Him, one filled with hope and confidence, receptivity, trust, and surrender. One that leads us to everlasting life.
