Wouldn’t life as a Catholic Christian have been much simpler 500 or a 1,000 years ago? No internet to tempt the eyes, no murderous agendas to kill babies, no attacks against us just because we are Catholic.
Only God knows for sure. But, even those times had their struggles. I remember a quote of Father Michael Gaitley while at a Franciscan University conference. He reminds that in the past century, more blood has been shed than in all the millennia prior. But, the thing he said that really stood out is, “the Saints have a holy envy of us, no other time in history has it been easier to become a saint.
This bring me back to my thought today. God’s Will is this moment for us. That we live in this moment for God’s glory. When we accept this moment as the moment in which God has placed us, specifically to bring glory to His Name, we find peace.
It doesn’t matter at that moment whether we are attacked, shunned or walking through thorns in a dark night. What matters solely is that this moment is exactly right where God wants us.
Is the world dark and falling into further darkness, antipathy and even anarchy? Is the world turning its back on God? Maybe…but, that just means our little candle of light, shining from our faith, blazes all the more brightly.
My surrender now makes sense in the light of accepting this. It isn’t for huge events or incredible stories that God has us here in this moment. It is for this moment alone. To accept that this moment, these days are where we find God. This is when the peace of surrender, surrender itself can occur in our life. The moment may seem inconsequential or may be incredibly huge, but, that is for God not us to determine.
We just live the now. Take the moment, and give it back to God. His love and mercy then shined through. The Father signs His Name at the end of the page, and upon our moment rests are simple initials.