Perhaps the saddest of all human spectacles is the poor soul who, having known, loved, and served God, abandons Him for a life of sin. Having experienced both the bliss of God’s friendship and the misery of man’s sin, why do these poor souls continue to choose the latter state?
Perhaps the Prodigal Son is such a famous parable because its circumstances are so spectacular. Rare indeed does the story play out in real life. Once a soul abandons the truth, it’s awfully tough to win them back.
And yet we see Our Lord completely consumed with love for these poor souls. He tells that He came precisely for their benefit. He called them to Himself while here on earth, and He continues to do so today. Wayward souls will offer a plethora of excuses for delaying their return to the truth, but none of it matters. We don’t need to hear those excuses, and we don’t even need to counter them. All we need to do is pray. Pray to the one who has the power to bring these souls back home, and let the conversions begin.
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St Augustine said ‘Our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they rest in Thee.’ That restlessness is a foretaste of the sufferings of hell.
Our Lord’s bloody sweat suffering in His Agony in the Garden, his words from the Cross, ‘Why hast Thou forsaken Me?’, all cries we wretched are familiar with, proves to us how close He is to us. If we could just make known His Most Sacred Heart and That of His Sorrowful Mother we could help him win back so many souls the devil thinks are his.
Father Jenkins described the feast from Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, in which we watch how satan consumes the souls of the lost, in this way: see how proud the devil is consuming with glee lesser souls than his. Motioning to the Altar and Altar Rails he said, and see how Humble our Lord is, allowing lesser souls than He to consume Him.
If only we could conquer this pride.
Beautiful. I intended to respond to this comment sooner and tell you that that quote of St. Augustine’s is one of my all time favorites. I repeat it often if not daily.
In the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel we pray for protection against satan who, like a lion, prowls about the world seeking whom he may devour. Contrast that with an omnipotent God who condescends to the point where He invites lowly man to eat of His flesh and drink His blood that we may have a share in His divine life. Incredible.