Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
We live in a world that insists on inclusivity: a phrase like “no child left behind” speaks to this insistence that everyone be equal, that no one be excluded from anything, for any reason at all. The impulse here is an apparent good, an apparent charity. And yet, as St. Ignatius teaches, echoing St. Paul, the devil likes to appear as an “an angel of light,” great evil likes to masquerade as apparent good.
The Bible is full of warnings concerning the “two ways”- the way that leads to life, and the way that leads to perdition. Though we must hope in the mercy of God, who is wiser and better than we are, still, there is a justice of God that is awesome, and terrifying: God is truth itself. The God of Israel is not Barney.
Jesus is crystal clear that He has a flock, that He has come for this flock, and that it is possible to reject Him. The condition is to hear His voice, which calls “earnestly, tenderly.” It is said that the conscience is the voice of God. We live in a world so full of voices that would contradict the voice of God in our hearts, that would deform our very consciences: and that would lead us to perdition. Let us humbly listen for the voice of God in the liturgy and in Scripture, in the events of our lives, and above all, in the privacy of our “inner chamber,” in our hearts where He should be enthroned. Let us let Jesus be Lord in our hearts. We can choose to be left behind, but it is not God’s will. Let us pray that His love overcome our own willfulness.