Confident that I am not alone in my need for repentance, I will share a secret with you. For years, with a hardened heart, I have failed to love one of my neighbors. Truthfully, I loathed her. With blinders on, it has been challenging to see past to the distasteful things this person has done. Wrestling with feelings of anger, frustration, and even disgust, I allowed my heart to be hardened toward this beloved child of God. Unable to overlook the many who were injured by her and were suffering as a result of her actions, I would grumble about her, taking many shameful opportunities to jab at her. Honestly, her sinful, cruel actions made it easy. I spread gossip like feathers dispersed in the wind and acted as a Pharisee, with my head held high, falsely thinking I was better than her. Luckily, the Lord has great mercy and extends it new each day.
“But I will call this to mind as my reason to have hope: The favors of the Lord are not exhausted, his mercies are not spent; They are renewed each morning, so great is his faithfulness.” Lamentations 3: 21-23.
Softly touching my heart after many years of this nonsense, God wisely beckoned me to examine who I felt my enemies were and invited me to pray for them intentionally, intensely, and immensely. By opening my eyes to those who were most difficult for me to love, He revealed my need to uncover the beauty in this woman. Following the Lord’s request, I tried to independently unearth her value and beauty, yet I could not surmise the good in her. After over two years of this unfruitful work, I finally crawled to the Lord. I begged Him to soften my heart and to allow me to see His presence in her. I wanted to see the Holy Spirit in her heart. What He revealed to me was astounding! The quality I struggled with most of all in her was overshadowed by the beauty of a burning, but gentle love planted in her heart. I witnessed the tenderness of her heart on full display. As an innocent onlooker, the Lord shown His light on her as she interacted with another. Immediately, I knew it was the Lord inviting me to see her as He did. This intimate moment allowed me to eradicate the harsh feelings I had toward her. God was alive in her! God’s mercy was the salve we both needed! Self-awareness rolled in. All the ugliness I had felt towards her was extinguishing her internal flame. My lack of virtue and harshness toward her actually encouraged her vices to flourish. Shame on me! As I was beckoned to see things in a new light, my heart was softened, and my blinders removed. I could finally love her as she was.
I invite you to journey out into the world, with a tender heart, on a quest to find the Lord in others. Poor in heart, poor in spirit, and poor in mind, these are His chosen ones, God’s children who He calls you to serve. Not an easy feat, yet if you ask Him to open your heart and mind, He will reveal Himself to you in the poorest of the poor. God’s beloved are scattered throughout the world, but especially in your everyday. So near, they are your mother, your brother, your sister, your neighbor. All ablaze with the fire of the Lord, their flame has been burning low. You are called to breathe life into them by pouring the Lord’s love into their hearts and souls. Feed and nourish them, allowing them to become whole again. His love heals. I encourage you sister to peel back the wool from your eyes to reveal Christ before you. Then, simply love them, as there is no one else on earth to love. Love them as the Father loves you, without judgement and without reserve.
“I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power of love and self-control.” 2 Timothy 1: 6-7
Call to Act: Who has He placed before you to attend to and to embrace? How can you love them and serve them more fully and completely? Pray, begging God to allow you to see Him in others. Then, implore Him to reveal to you how you are to show them the fire of His love. Ask Him to grant you the ability to love them where they are and in the unique ways that they need.
It is not always easy sister. Often, the ones He wants us to love most deeply are the ones who have hurt us most fiercely. Pray for healing and a heart full of the Father’s love as you enter the world today. Pray your hurt dissipates and love resounds. My prayers are with you, sister, as you venture into the world to serve our Mighty Lord.
St. Rita, pray for us that we may be able to see the good in each person we encounter, despite their actions or demeanor. Ask the Lord to allow us a glimpse into the beauty of their hearts and souls. Beg Him to grant us the grace to love them as you love them Lord and act as you ask us to act, despite the ways we may have been hurt by them. We ask this through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Saint Rita of Cascia
St. Rita, one of my very favorite saints, was born to poor farmers in Italy in 1381. From a very young age, her parents would carry her into the fields with them as they worked. Regularly, rare, regional white bees were seen flying in and out of her small mouth causing her no harm. Her pious parents felt this marked her as a special child of God. As she grew, Rita begged her parents to permit her to enter a convent because Rita longed to serve the Lord. However, St. Rita had already been promised to an extremely fiery man who lacked virtue in many ways. Marrying him at the age of twelve, they had two sons. Their boys were known for living a questionable life. Rita prayed fervently for all three pleading for their conversion and repentance. Understanding that the Lord lived in them, Rita begged the Lord to reveal their goodness and the His mercy. Tragically, her husband was murdered, and as a result, her sons became even angrier and more sinful. St. Rita asked the Lord to take her sons, so they would not mortally sin, which would prevent their family from being united in Heaven. After many years and some extreme circumstances, St. Rita’s pleas to Our Lord were answered. Both her sons became deathly ill, but converted, dying shortly thereafter, leaving Rita alone. With a longing still in her heart to join a religious order and seeking after a deeper union with Our Lord, she requested to join a congregation. Sadly, she was turned away. After much prayer and Divine intervention, Rita was led by her patron saints, flying through the night sky, to unlock the chapel of the monastery. St. Rita was welcomed into the Augustinian order and lived the next 40 years as a sister. With a deep love for Christ, she received the gift of the stigmata on her forehead, bearing much pain and suffering. After her death, the same white bees seen flying in her mouth as an infant were reported to return year after year to the place of her burial during holy week. St. Rita is known for pleading to Our Lord for impossible causes, as she persevered in prayer in her life of suffering and loss. She forgave those who hurt her most deeply and even prayed them out of their sinful ways and into Our Lords loving arms. Read more about her here.
https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=205