Tuesday 2nd week of Advent
"Mt 18:12-14"
"What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish."
How much God loves sinners. He calls them "those little ones" because they are His children and He is looking for them. His Will is that not one of them is lost. As Pope Francis explained, "God never tires of forgiveness," He never gives up, He always goes in search of sinners to bring them back to Him. And in this task of bringing souls to Himself He relies on us, His apostles of the 21st century. If we stop going in search of sinners they may have no other chance.
The enemy is adamant in discouraging God's apostles. The devil tries with all his energies to obstruct our apostolate, to dissuade us from trying again to bring sinners back to God, to demoralise us and interfere with our mission. But souls depend on us. Many souls depend on our struggle never to give up.
For a while St John Vianney suffered the temptation of leaving his parish and retiring to a place where he could devote himself to prayer. But one day he had a very interesting conversation with the devil. The evil spirit talked to him through a possessed lady and insulted him: "How you torment me! You 'Vilain crapaud noir!" (the devil called him "ugly black toad"). And then, furious with the saint, the devil continued, "You are a miser of souls. You rob me of all you can...You are a liar! You said, a long while ago, that you wished to depart from this place, and here you still remain. What do you mean by that? Why do you not retire and rest, as others do? You have worked long enough...You talked of retiring into solitude. Why do you not do so?" So desperate was he to get rid of the saint that he was actually imploring him, like a little child, 'please, please, please... go away!' Because that is the only way the enemy can manage to get his way: when we give up on God's plan. Mary, Gate of Heaven, help me to never quit going in search of those souls that need to be brought back to your Son.
