Forgotten Truths To Set Faith Afire!

 

 

  God’s love is the greatest because of the condition of the person loved, for it is man who is the object of God's love, the worldly man living in sin. St. Thomas Aquinas     [Where is our gratitude?]

( Photo by Nuno Silva on Unsplash ) Humility is a virtue of the will, but it depends on knowledge.   To be humble, a man must realize the lack of proportion between his own powers and the great things toward which his will tends.   Humility does not make a man think less of himself than he ought; it is based on an honest estimate of one's own capacities, and hence enables a man to see what he cannot do and to abstain from trying to do the impossible…It is humility, which makes it possible for a man to see that he can not find happiness without the assistance of God's grace and love.   The humble man does not try the impossible – to save himself without God.   The humble man subjects himself to God, worships God and asks the divine assistance in his pursuit of happiness. (Walter Farrell, O.P., S.T.M. and Martin J. Healy, S.T.D.)

We can try to limit suffering, to fight against it, but we cannot eliminate it.  It is when we attempt to avoid suffering by withdrawing from anything that might involve hurt, when we try to spare ourselves the effort and pain of pursuing truth, love, and goodness, that we drift into a life of emptiness, in which there may be almost no pain, but the dark sensation of meaninglessness and abandonment is all the greater. It is not by sidestepping or fleeing from suffering that we are healed, but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it, and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love.  Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI