q Wednesday 3rd week of Easter
"Jn 6:35-40"
Jesus said to them, "All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
The Father has entrusted Jesus with a mission: that He "should lose nothing of all that the Father has given Him". Not a single soul should be lost. All are destined to rise with Him at the end of time. Jesus Himself says, "him who comes to me I will not cast out"; no one who comes to Him... but they need to come. Yet, some don't come to Him; some even run away from Him when He wants to bring them close to Him. They want to be saved, but not badly. They want to go to Heaven, but 'kind of' or 'more-or-less'. They lack determination.
They pray as St Augustine did when he was young. Although he had no desire to renounce his life of misery and sin, he knew that he had to change. He explains in his Confessions how he would pray: "Lord, give me chastity and continence, but not yet." Our Lord needed him for an important mission. Many souls depended on Augustine and his fulfilling the Will of the Father, so God granted him the grace of conversion when he was 31 years old.
After his conversion he worked hard to serve God. He made up for his delay in bringing himself to do the Will of God. Nevertheless, when he looked back at his early life and thought about how much he made Jesus wait until he followed Him, he wrote this lovely prayer: "Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside. You were with me, but I was not with you. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace."
Holy Mary, our Hope, may I never make God wait for me to fulfil His Will.
