13 November 2015
Memorial of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin
In the Gospel we get a glimpse of society before the flood and before the destruction of Sodom. No one escaped. This is a preview of the coming of “the day of the Son of Man” on which all of us will be affected. No one will escape.
If the judgment is to be universal; it will also be particular: “One will be taken, the other left.” So, the fact that I share solidarity with everyone who has ever lived does not exempt me from reflecting on my own responsibility for salvation. God offers me the grace, but I can refuse to accept it.
So my prayer today will be on my own death. What have I done that I wish I had not done? What am I now doing now that I shouldn’t be doing? And what should I be doing? Would those I am leaving be better off if I, along with our spiritual leaders, had refrained from making choices based on politically correct tolerance and effete silence? Is courage something that I lacked? Courage is what I need now.
Today is the feast of a woman of great courage, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. She, like Mother Teresa and St. John Paul, can assist me today in my prayers about “the day of the Son of Man”, about my past, the present and my future: “Be not afraid”.