DEDICATED TO ALL MEN OF GOOD WILL

“I  DO  NOT  KNOW  YOU”    

“I was a stranger and you took me in.” He will say on the Last Day. The same principle of hiding until sought after is evident throughout Christ’s life. At Jericho there was a blind man, by the name of Barthimeus who kept crying out: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” The Lord pretended that he was not listening and was going to pass him by, but despite the rebuke even of others in the crowd, the blind man cried out more loudly … and was cured. We have to persist in our prayer.

So it was with the woman who came from the neighbourhood  of Tyre and Sidon, and pleaded that He cure her ailing daughter, who was troubled by an evil spirit. He gave her no word in answer. His disciples came to Him and pleaded with Him. “Rid us of her”, they said. But after further testing her faith, He answered: “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And from that hour her daughter was cured.

Every word that comes to us about the ‘uncomfortable’, the ‘homeless’, the ‘lepers’… that will be the Son of God passing by.  If we let Him pass by without reacting, He may never be recalled. This was experienced and declared by St.Augustine: “Lord. I fear that You will pass close to me and I will not notice you.” Just like water in a stream, in a river, that same water which is now close to you will never pass by you again. Dip your hand in it, now, because once it moves, it is gone forever.

Graces unused are not often repeated. All through life, our hands will stretch forth empty of the richest blessings of wisdom and truth unless they are first used to clutch at the sleeves of the Divine Who gives the impression that He would be passing us by. Emotional responsiveness without practical issue harms the soul. The drama stirs the emotions, but awakens no duties towards the afflicted on the stage.

For a moment we may feel we are on the side of the angels. But that is what the Romans called ‘ignis fatuus’, that is ‘the empty fire’, the pleasurable glow that consumes no evil and illumines no path.

Adapted from the Writings of Fulton John Sheen