Here’s What We Can Do

St. Augustine said: “God created us without us: but he will not save us without us” [CCC 1847]. Yet so many are leaving the Church. Certainly, the latest polls and surveys are not encouraging as belief in God grows more tepid.

Of course, the devil delights in whatever drives people away from the Church, away from God and his loving mercy. That’s the devil’s plan. Here’s what we can do to stop the devil’s advance: First and foremost, believe the truth.

The truth is every fiber of our being—body, mind, heart, and soul—matters to God. He created us out of love, and he saves us out of love. If we truly believed in God’s saving graces, the devil would not have a hold on us.

Where We Are Headed

However, every time we doubt the Lord’s presence; every time we think our participation in Church does not matter; and every time we ignore our spiritual needs, the devil tightens his grip on us. As St. Maximilian Kolbe once said: “The most deadly poison of our times is indifference.” If we think indifference to prayer or to sin is not harmful, look at the state our society is in today.

Most people believe we are headed in the wrong direction. We certainly are headed the wrong way when we turn away from God. And we turn away from God more than we realize. Recently I saw the presentation of Msgr. James Shea at the Eucharistic Conference. He said the following:

“We live in the most comfortable society in all of human history and yet we have the highest levels of depression, boredom, and anxiety of any people who have ever lived.” Msgr. Shea further explained that we have been catechized into a “scientistic and materialistic mindset.”

Our technological devices “root us in a pseudo-prayer fashion, in a pseudo-spiritual fashion more deeply in the scientistic, materialistic world of our time. We are shopping for teapots on Amazon with all the energies of our hearts that are meant for prayer and meditation and spiritual renewal,” according to Shea.

“We are captivated by the visible, materialistic, scientistic world,” Shea said. Oftentimes we are led into a false sense of security and comfort relying on only what we can see. Here’s what we can do: Re-energize our faith with prayer. Fifteen minutes a day, talk to our Lord. He listens and works to opens our eyes.

Rescue Mission

Faith helps us to find what we cannot see on our own—that is Heaven on earth. We realize God is here, seeking us out. Our Lord wants to empower us with his healing mercy to meet our daily challenges with faith, hope, and love. God knows we are worth the effort; do we know it?

Here’s what we can do: Do not give up on God because God does not give up on us. He knows our shortcomings, our failures, and our sins. He also knows the beauty that exists within each of us. Let our God-given beauty shine through our daily living.

We shine by accepting God’s Word into our hearts and living it. Reflect our faith, hope, and love of God in what we say, how we treat ourselves and one another, and through selfless acts of kindness. With God’s grace, we are not helpless. We participate in God’s plan of renewal and salvation, not only for ourselves, but for the world. Amen!