24 July, Thursday — Spiritual Blockages

Jul 24 – Memorial for St. Charbel Makhluf, Priest

St. Charbel was a Lebanese monk, born in a small mountain village and ordained in 1858. Devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he spent the last twenty three years of his life as a hermit. Despite temptations to wealth and comfort, St. Charbel taught the value of poverty, self-sacrifice and prayer by the way he lived his life.

http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/innews/082002.shtml

Exo 19:1-2,9-11,16-20
Mt 13:10-17

I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand

My young son is at a delightful stage in his life now where he excitedly shares about what he learns during Catechism about God and Jesus with the people around him. He is also beautifully enthusiastic to tell his non-believing grandparents about God’s love and the person of Jesus. However, he is often met with disinterest and a reluctance to engage. They tell him: you can talk to me about this when you turn 18, but not now. When he returns home, he confides in me his bewilderment and disappointment. I try my best to explain simple terms the choice of free will that God has given to all Mankind. It is sad, but we must often let people be and to live out their choices.

As I watch my child today, I am reminded of myself as a young girl who fervently prayed for my own father’s conversion. I was a girl with a fiery appetite for debate with my father about the truth of God’s existence and love of Christ, even as I often risked a big scolding for annoying him. As he is well in his senior years, I have learnt, with maturity now, to try my best to live out the Christian’s life as a model and not so much as an argument. I shall leave this portion of conversion in God’s hands.

The Gospel reading today from Matthew 13:10-17 tells us that no matter how persuasive or repetitive God’s treatise is, it cannot change the heart (or hearts) of one or many, who refuse to see and hear. Those who actively choose, with their God-given free will, to close their eyes and shut their ears and harden their hearts will reap the fruits of this decision. We need to keep praying for those among us who are living with various spiritual blockages.

Each of us goes through many stages in a conversion process. This conversion process pretty much takes place throughout our lives. It might start out with curiosity, interest, or doubts. It might continue with desire and willingness. It might be punctuated by dryness, a lukewarm spirit and fear. It might culminate in revelation, understanding, and joy. The biggest hurdle to conversion would be denial, and hardly the lack of knowledge, faith or opportunity.

My chosen family is a new generation of Catholics, risen up from our childhoods of disbelief and denial. But God still managed to breakthrough our family cultures to change the hearts of my husband and I. We choose now to raise our child in the faith and desire fervently to remain faithful till the end.

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear.”

I pray for you who have chosen this Catholic faith and who acknowledge the Almighty God and Creator of Heaven and Earth… that you will seize this treasure of free will and never let your faith go. If you are sitting on the fence, let go of your fear or denial, and choose Him in whom all your searching and journeys will end.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Debbie Loo)

Prayer: Lord, You are Holy indeed. Keep your people close to your heart and protect us from all temptations and evil.

Thanksgiving: We praise God for the gift of free will, that we all may freely choose, freely believe, and freely come to Him. We thank God for raising up new generations of the faith family from the ashes of those who deny Him.