By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
The occasion of a 50th jubilee wedding celebration was a cause for contemplating the courage of cooperation with God. Surrendering to His plan through openness to life, and raising eight children in the faith, would leave any person open to the possibility of fear. So many risks and unknowns. Yet today they are full of joy, a growing family still, enjoying the love that comes from openness to God’s plan which makes necessary the rejection of fear and selfishness.
The expressions both public and private of our faith are more intense at this time of year than any other.
Our weakness in the face of forces beyond our control can only be answered by surrender. Only one surrender brings good and not evil. God alone can give us the refuge we seek.
Christmas trees and crèches and messages of joy connected to God’s initiative of salvation in the Incarnation of our Lord dominate the landscape around us in December. Catholic iconography and holy images are freely adopted by many who do not share our faith. For a short while each year, all the world seems Catholic once again.
This boldness of proclamation seems to arouse hatred, or perhaps triggers mental illness. More than 100 incidents of vandalism have been reported since May 2020, according to the USCCB. Reminders of God are not welcomed by those who wish to deny death or escape judgment for unrepented sin. This clinging to sin is enabled by spiritual blindness, the handmaid of evil.
The latest target of malevolent rage was not a seasonal display, but rather a permanently installed Carrara marble statue of Our Lady of Fatima on the grounds of the National Shrine in Washington, D.C. A man hammered away at the face of our Lady’s image, shearing off the nose and sawing off her hands.
We are saddened by this manifestation of rage but must always forgive. He kept the hands; perhaps our Lady will teach him to put his hands together in loving submission to God through prayer by means of her own.
Read the rest: https://thewandererpress.com/catholic/news/our-catholic-faith/faith-vaccinates-against-pandemic-of-fear/
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