30 April 2020
Optional Memorial of Saint Pius V, pope, religious
The choices we make must be in response to our circumstances, in response to our peculiar environment. We must spend time studying our environment carefully in order to choose the correct action. Is it more important to do the laundry today or to go to the store? To make the correct choice, we must study the situation. The more important the choice, the more important it is for us to be familiar with the situation. For our most important choices, we must study God as the source of all reality. We must put our focus upon him.
A key Christian insight is that God is personal. God is a trinity of persons. Thus, to focus on God entails a focus on persons, not just a focus on philosophical or theological assertions, as true as they may be. There must be a focus on the three divine persons as persons, and this is where so many saints have found help in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. Most of us need help to hear God’s voice. The prophet Jeremiah could hear God’s voice. So could the prophet Elijah. So could St. Philip, the deacon. “The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, ‘Get up and head south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route’” (Acts 8:26). Philip did as the angel told him, and was greatly successful. He made the correct choice. He responded to the correct circumstances. He had studied reality at its deepest level, found God, and found a person who spoke to him. With the help of God’s grace, we can do the same.