We are all called to walk the path of Victory

Where are you going, they ask, as my feet keep moving? As I explain my journey it falls on deaf ears. They no longer hear or want to believe the call I follow. Each of them knows me well and knows the path I choose to follow.

As my steps become silent to their ears and each in his own way shuts out any semblance of memory as to what I stand for, the scene becomes only a distant figure that slowly fades away. What could I have done to turn their hearts back to the goal that lies ahead? Then I realize even the prize that is within reach of each person cannot change their stubborn will simply because it is a free will and even this prize is victory with God and he will not interfere with that gift.

I stop on my walk, go to my knees and begin crying. Who were those that stood on the path as I walked, staring at me and those who also walked with me? My tears exposed the sadness that poured out for them realizing they are my children. Each had a catholic upbringing, received the Sacraments, attended mass with us, and some were married with the grace of the Catholic Church. For some they used the pedaphilia as an excuse and now they were punishing God, the Church, and most especially the priests who never once fell to this scourge.

To whom is their action creating dismay? Not God! And not the Church they grew up with believing in and sharing the gospel of truth. And not the priests who still teach and share the Sacraments of Christ with us. Those who are recipients of their hatred, the absence of the very presence of other believers and the consolation of the Church still are alive and functioning without them. The ones they hurt are themselves as their faith in God has become lost.

This scenario is not isolated to my family only, it is synonymous with families all over the country. Try as we might, the solution lies within their own sense of why Jesus went to the Cross. You hear it over and over that Jesus didn’t carry our sins on his back as Santa Claus, he became the very sins we are guilty of and without accepting that truth our faith is useless.

Is there hope for those who have lost their faith, or temporarily misplaced it believing what they consider pain without healing? Of course since God desires that each soul he created will share his life and love with him in eternity. However, once a person turns away from God it is not easy to feel his touch and know that what we feel is the Spirit tugging at the heart strings of our complete entity and turning on our knees seeking his forgiveness.

Do not turn away from those we love, but pray that somehow each one will drop to their knees, also admitting that God loves them and is waiting for their return.

Ralph B. Hathaway