Celebrating the Feast of the Immaculate Conception
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"And the book of Isaias the prophet was delivered unto him. And as he unfolded the book, he found the place where it was written: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me. Wherefore he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the contrite of heart, to preach deliverance to the captives and sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of reward." - Luke 4:17-19
"For he saith: In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." - 2 Cor. 6:2
Yesterday, I found myself in tears during Mass. Tears of grief for years of disobedience to the Lord, of being a reluctant prophet. Worse than Jonah, who spent less than three weeks in rebellion before doing as God asked of him, I spent eight years rebelling. What came to me is this: those years of rebellion caused God's delay in answering my prayers. I stood in my own way and denied to my own son what God wanted him to receive because of my hardness of heart, selfishness, and short-sightedness.
However, I know that God does not want my guilt. He wants my change. He wants me to conform myself to His will, bend my knees, and obey. And so I am doing that which He asked me to do so long ago. I am going to devote the rest of my days to setting the captives free and preaching the Good News to the poor, letting people know that God has not forgotten or failed to answer them.
True Catholic Social Justice is not handing money to the poor and sending them on their way. The money doesn't heal the broken heart or help them see their value. It doesn't change their lives or empower them to do the things that God put them on this earth to do. Handing them money and counting yourself done with having helped them enables them. It doesn't empower them.
Enabling someone says, "You poor thing. I know you can't handle things, so I'm going to handle it for you."
Empowering them says, "I know you can do this, all you need is a little support. I believe in you."
God empowers us. He doesn't enable us. He gives us what we need to do great things. But it's up to each of us to step up and do what needs to be done.
It is easy to give money. It is harder to give yourself. That's why I resisted God's call for so long. I didn't want to sacrifice my own dreams and my own desires in order to put the needs of His people ahead of my own. I thought I would lose everything if I did. Over these last few months, though, He's helped me to see that being willing to lose everything for His sake is the only way to gain all the things that I dream of having and protect those I love most from the coming storms of life.
As I mentioned in my post, "Investing, Not Legislating, an End to Abortion," I put together free training for Catholic families on how to evangelize by teaching them entrepreneurship skills. In that article, I recommended that people step up to invest in these young parents and help them find hope for their financial future without needing to sacrifice their children to do it.
Then, I heard God call me to take it one step further. He wanted me to offer people training in the method He taught me of Turning Problems into Profits at no cost. This time, I didn't fight him. I spent the next two weeks working to get it done. It was during Mass, after having finished putting it all together and making it available online, that I realized how much of a fool I'd been in delaying obedience.
I realized for lack of training like this, my own son struggled to make ends meet. For lack of my obedience, he didn't get to see that God works all things for the good or witness proof that God hears the cry of the poor. For lack of training like this being available, a young woman I know nearly took the life of her own child. For lack of training like this, young adults all over the world get themselves deeply indebted and are unable to fulfill their vocations to the priesthood, religious, and married life. They flounder, too afraid of what the future holds to take the risk.
It doesn't have to be that way. God willing, it won't be. In my last article, I encouraged other people to invest but I didn't show them the way forward by being willing to do it myself. That's not good leadership.
Today, I'm proud to say, I'm taking the initiative. I can complain about what isn't being done for families, children, and parents...or I can step up and do something about it. I'm choosing to do my part.
I hope the answer is nothing. I hope you never experience what it's like to receive a call from God that you don't answer and that you don't have to live with the regrets. But if you've been holding off on doing something for God. If He's asked you to do something and you've hesitated, let me encourage you now:
Do whatever He tells you to do. The life that was dry and empty that you bring to Him, once you do whatever He tells you to do, will fill to the brim with a joy that cannot be matched by anything else.
My advice: Be obedient. Do whatever He tells you to do. Avoid the drama of needing to be fished out of the ocean and dropped onto the beach to do the work He asked you to do, as Jonah was. Just do it.
Award-winning international speaker and author, Brandy M. Miller is a Catholic revert. Raised in a culturally Catholic home, she left the faith at 16 in search of the truth and returned 12 years later when she found it right where she left it. Today, she is convinced that the Catholic Church is the cure to society's ills and is eager to help share the Gospel truth to those who have ears to hear it. When she isn't writing for or about the Catholic Church, she offers her writing talents to Catholics who would like help sharing their witnesses of Christ's work in their lives.
