As we draw near to the end of the Church’s Year, the ideal way to accept Jesus’ message is to always to be ready to face anything, any time, even death. We are constantly challenged to live holy lives of selfless love, mercy, compassion, and unconditional forgiveness, remembering the demands of justice and truth in our day-to-day lives. We are also challenged to make time to rest and to pray in order to keep our hearts alive and attentive to God’s presence with us and within us.
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Food for Thought: “As a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities were silenced in a few short weeks. Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration for it, because the Church alone has had the courage to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised, now I praise unreservedly.” — Albert Einstein’s words after the Second World War
The Church had the moral courage to resist a dictator, and it saved the lives of so many people because it believed in the assurance given by Jesus in the Gospels: “By your perseverance in justice and the truth you will be saved.”
