As we continue the journey towards Easter, Receiving Grace must be our prime objective

As we continue the journey towards Easter, Receiving Grace must be our prime objective 

What is the requisite that calls our attention to grace and how it comes to us individually?  When we were first introduced to Lenten observances our minds had visions of watching what we said, acts that took our consciences as an open book, and preparing how to find that grace that tells us to speak; “Mea Culpa.”

The effort of learning what compunction means when we are the promoter of an evil event that will do harm to others as the pain of suffering has already occurred and cannot be taken back.  That is exactly what has happened when we watch and shudder as the tensions of an uneasy world that promises nothing but destruction to the souls of so many who have lost their way without Christ’s Passion becomes the hope for apostates.  It seems that this probability is so rampant that for most people that have become intrigued with a non-attendance at Church are disciples of side-stepping the name of Christ.  “Why?”  They may ask; “do I need the Church anymore since our leaders have shown us how to find our own religion without bibles or preaching?”

Listening to a prompter of finding grace doesn’t always make its way into forgotten themes regarding Christ, his Church, and the blessings we need to live a holy life.  Yet, this is the only salvific manner to find the missing grace that without it we are doomed to fail in our faith.  There is something mysterious about how grace enters our human psyche; but it comes only through the faith that God gives each of us through his Holy Spirit.

Any one who sits in Church and contemplates how this Lent will be different from past days of fasting and prayer he/she must examine each moment of silence that allows the Lord an opportunity of reaching through a solemn whisper of God in a time of fear or wonderment.  Elijah discovered that hidden voice in his moment of finding God as he felt his presence after overcoming the sounds of the world that left him speechless.  (1 Kgs 19: 11 - 12).  Our time of contemplation will also allow the Lord, Jesus, just enough time to use our faith to instill the much needed grace that leads all of us to the Cross.  

We know, or should understand that through any moment of missing the Holiness of Christ may cause suffering in a spiritual sense; which will be the path to the Cross which is eternal life.  First, we must acknowledge that this type of suffrage is not what we look forward to.  It is finding the grace that leads us to an understanding of how true suffering is the path to the cross and eternal presence with the Lord.

When we feel that much needed grace, even if most do not recognize it immediately, the necessity of putting that virtue into perspective will mean a moment of holiness which everyone needs but only a few will recognize it.  This Lent, look for that silent whisper which will open your mind to his voice, and hold onto it like a treasure from heaven.

Ralph B. Hathaway