[Today's Gospel is from Matthew 10:9-15]
The Lord also said to the Apostles that if a city does not receive them, and will not hear their words, then it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for that city. (Mat 10:15)
And what will happen to us for our refusal to hear the words of Divine revelation? It will be immesurably intolerable for us. To disbelieve the truth of God after so many tangible proofs is the same as reviling the Holy Spirit and blaspheming. And yet we are not afraid. The Spiritists console one person, "What judgment? We just have to be born one more time." The scientists explain to one another, "Whom is there to judge? Everything is made of atoms ; they'll fly apart and that will be the end of everything."
But, friends, the hour of death is coming; these dreams will fly apart like phantoms, and we will all be faced with inexorable reality. What then? What wretched times we live in! The enemy has contrived to destroy our souls. He knows that fear of death and judgment is the strongest means for sobering up a soul, and so he makes every attempt to drive this away, and he succeeds. But extinguish the fear of death, and fear of God will disappear. And without the fear of God, the conscience becomes mute. The soul becomes empty - it becomes a waterless cloud, carried about by every wind of teaching and every fit of the passions.
["Thoughts for Each Day of the Year," Tuesday, 2nd week after Pentecost, pgs 128-129]
No comments:
Post a Comment