So then each of us shall give an account of himself to
God. Romans 14:12
I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy
in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who
have no need of repentance. Luke 15:7
Piety
Father, help us to change
the direction in which we are looking for happiness. We are in need of change so we do not become
the lost sheep, the lost coins, or the prodigal sons and daughters outside your
kingdom. May your wait for us to change
be short and swift. Amen.
Study
Everyone can understand
the image of the “lost coins.” Who among
us has not turned over all the pillows, looked in all the drawers, and opened
all the closet doors in search of a lost wallet? Who has not lamented the plunging real estate
values when the economy turns south? Who
has not fretted over the declining value of our retirement savings and how to
make up the difference when the stock market plunges?
In some ways, having a lot
of our treasures accounted for electronically is good. We cannot “misplace” the item literally. However, now we have to contend with all the accounts,
the passwords, and the precautions required to avoid being scammed with identity
theft, and more.
Let’s count our blessings
instead of being lost sheep.
Action
This weekend has
quite interesting bookend dates. Tomorrow,
(November 8) is the 116th anniversary of the birth of Dorothy
Day. Monday, November 11, is Veteran’s
Day.
Dorothy Day, whose
cause for sainthood continues to advance through the Vatican hierarchy, was a Catholic
activist who died in 1980. She was a
vocal advocate for peace and against war and also committed to putting love in
action on a daily basis through the practice of the corporal works of
mercy. She and Peter Maurin established
the Catholic Worker movement that in turn has inspired a network of houses of
hospitality including the Catholic Worker House in northwest Washington, DC.
My job offers me the
opportunity to enter some of the most significant buildings in where the Federal
government business takes place. Some
days, as I enter the Pentagon or the Old Executive Office Building, I see Catholic
Workers and other people of faith, inspired by her story and the Gospel, continuing
to advocate for peace, for an end to war and feeding the homeless who sleep on
benches right across the street from the White House.
Inside those same
buildings, I also encounter people of faith, inspired by the Gospel fighting
for justice in different ways. The stories on both sides of the door can
inspire us to be more like saints than sinners.
Take Mark Gadson. As we approach Veteran’s
Day Weekend, his inspiring story also may help you count your blessings. If you saw the movie “Battleship,” Gadson was an actor playing one of the
men on the tour of the Hawaiian hillside.
He plays a veteran who regains his courage when Hawaii comes under a fictitious
alien attack. This acting “stint” was
only a part-time job. In real-life, he
is a West Point graduate, husband, father and now Commander of Ft. Belvoir, VA since
last June.
When Col. Gadson was returning to Camp Liberty from
a memorial service in Iraq in 2007, an IED blew up his vehicle and ejected him into
the formerly silent stillness and darkness of a desert night. The injuries suffered during the attack ultimately
cost him both legs and the use of his right arm below the elbow. Without today’s advanced state of emergency
medicine, such an accident might have taken his life in prior wars. However, Col. Gadson and thousands like him,
are returning to life after their war experience and injuries.
When Col. Gadson spoke in Alexandria’s
Mark Center Tuesday, he explained that he did not have any quit in his
DNA. “I never thought about giving up. I
was strong. I played football at West Point. I was an officer in the U.S. Army.
I had a wonderful marriage and two beautiful children. But war can change you. War can turn you
inside out. And adversity can either break you or make you stronger. It is a
lesson thousands of our men and women in uniform have learned over the last
decade, a lesson that began for me one day in Iraq in 2007.”
You can read his full
story here (http://www.guideposts.org/faith/outreach-ministries/colonel-greg-gadson-standing-tall).
“Love in action is a harsh
and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams,” wrote Fyodor Dostoyevsky in The
Brothers Karamazov. No matter on which side of the door you are
standing, putting love in action is not easy.
We do not know if we are being called to sainthood like Dorothy Day or
service like Col. Gadson. Are we called
to do both?
We
do know that we are called to put love into action this weekend and every day. If we are faithful to putting love into
action, then when it is our time to account to God for what we did in our
lives, there will be joy in heaven for our personal path of change.
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