Jesus declared, “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!” (Lk 12:50) Thus, he offered us his way of living with suffering.
When we experience suffering, Jesus invites us to go through it as a baptism, that is to say, by freely desiring to open ourselves up to the Spirit. Let’s not forget that when we hear the word baptism, we are hearing an invitation to let ourselves be guided by the Spirit as Jesus did.
Jesus also tells us that there will be an end to trials, but we cannot anticipate it or decide the ending by ourselves. But—and this is very important to know—there will be a time of fulfillment.
Jesus invites us to stop focusing on the past and to look instead to the future: this is a profound conversion that quite often we should ask the Holy Spirit to grant us since we are so entangled in the bonds of the past.
Jesus calls us to stop trying to understand and control things; instead, he calls us to commit ourselves to act in ways that are focused on the future!
Therefore, we have to get involved and prepare for our future. And how? By desiring a change of heart! Everything starts there! The main object, which needs to keep us here, is conversion.
So, instead of looking to lay the blame on me or others—and here the list can be long—I am invited to let go of this need to blame someone and to give priority to one question: What can I change in my heart to make things a little bit better?
It’s not a matter of getting to that point right away, but of accepting that the question has arisen within me. Then, because it has grown deep within me, I can ask the Holy Spirit for help in enlightening me and enabling me to set out on a new journey with a new heart.
God’s mercy is able to change bad into good and therefore transform our broken hearts into living hearts. Let’s choose to offer this broken heart to his mercy and ask Jesus to graft his heart within us.
Denis-Marie Ghesquières, OCD
Province of Paris
Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.
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