Everyone of us knows that there will be an accounting of the good and evil that marked our lives here in this place of testing. Our service to the Master of all good workmen will call us before His throne and ask: “What doth thou owe thy Master?” Each of us has received so much from the hands of God and that gift which was bestowed upon us requires an action on our part. Give as it has been given to thee. Let us spend some time reflecting upon the gift and our response to it.
Examine your conscience which has been collecting all the charity and the pride and sinfulness that come to amass themselves in our personal consciousness. The kindness, the humility, the charity all will follow us to the kingdom of God but the vices and the lack of love must be expiated and transformed. The servant in the Gospel was called in to pay his debt of ten thousand talents of silver. Quite a sum even by today’s standard. He couldn’t pay and so he should be sold into slavery with his family. In a moment of desperation he fell upon his knees and begged the Master to give him more time and he would pay all. No need replied the Master; the debt is completely forgiven.
Now what joy that man must have felt after receiving pardon for such a debt. I am sure that he told the story to other servants who rejoiced with him. Then came the test which is the requisite for everybody on this earth. That servant came upon a brother servant who owed him a hundred dollars. Now 10,000 talents is a thousand times more than this debt of 100 dollars. You would think he could simply say, “Forget it, my friend, I have learned from the Master how to forgive all debts.” No, he didn’t do that instead he throttled him and threw him into prison until the debt was paid. The principle which is forgotten by most human beings is this: give as it has been given to thee.
What was the result when the Master learned of this lack of kindness. Anger…a just anger because it is a reaction to sin. Our anger is justified when its power is used to correct sinful behavior. In reality we have all been forgiven a multitude of sinful behavior and so we are forgiven through the wonderful service of the priest in the confessional. Yet after we have been forgiven so much we turn on these other weak human beings and demand justice without mercy. This type of justice without mercy is simply Cruelty.
Husbands do it to their wives and their children. Wives do it to their husbands and their children. Children do it to their siblings and peers. Our sense of justice coupled with anger causes us to seek some kind of vengeful reparation. We want to even things up. Their offenses were really minor to what we ourselves have done but boy do we find ways to make someone else suffer for the imagined harm they did to us. Now consider the correction which must take place in our souls.
“Who art thou? and Who is God? Spiritual practicality tells us that we are nothing but a pile of dirt. Dirt does not cry out over harm done. It is indifferent. Yet we can do much more with the injustices that come our way. We can offer them to our Lord in order to pay the price for a sinful soul. In this attitude we develop the virtue of true charity and we conquer the vice of a cruel anger. When we begin to recognize that kindness, charity, joy, peace, calmness are dominating our way of thinking and acting then we know that the Holy Ghost is operating and His works are transforming our nature.
Our Nature seeks to express the divine presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the goal of everyone of us because in Him we live and move and have our very being. We are doing nothing more than our divine duty. We are allowing Jesus to take over our human nature that we might develop our divine life in Him. In essence we are following our Blessed Mother’s action and can truly be called her sons and daughters. This is the effect of the Rosary Game which we play each time we offer this beautiful prayer. “Ring a-round the rosie, pocket full of posie, ashes, ashes, we all fall down.” We repeat the prayer and we fall into a state of being like death (ashes). Contemplation takes over and the repetition is the background music singing our love affair with Jesus and Mary.
Pray the rosary for the dying sinner and make the Master proud of the work He has done in forgiving you your many sins as He hung upon that cross for you and me. God bless you and pray often for the poor souls in Purgatory.
In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Fr. Voigt
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