“That young man rejected the suggestion, and the Gospel tells us that *abiit tristis* (Mt 19:22), that he went away sad (...): he lost his joy because he refused to surrender his freedom to God”5. A freedom that, if it had not served to lead him to the goal—to Christ, who was passing through his life—would now be of very little use to him.
Sadness is born in the heart like a harmful plant when we distance ourselves from Christ, when we deny Him what He asks of us—whether all at once or bit by bit—and when we lack generosity. This terrible disease of the soul “is a vice caused by disordered self-love”6. There may be illness, fatigue, and pain, but sadness of the heart is different. At its root, we always find pride and selfishness: behind that listlessness in our duties—without any apparent cause—may lie the inability to assert our own judgment, our own personality, or vanity; behind that pain may hide the rebelliousness of refusing to accept God’s will; in that discouragement upon seeing our own faults time and again, there may be more humiliation suffered than sorrow for having offended the Lord… “If God has forgiven me, if His merciful love, ever present, is poured out upon me, how can I be sad? If someone were to nourish their sadness in the pain of their sins, clinging to their guilt, that person should know that it is quite possibly a pretext and, always, a mistake”7. Our very faults and sins ought to lead us to the joy of repentance and to a love that is reborn even stronger.
The Lord passes close to our lives on countless occasions. Sometimes He will ask much of us in order to give us more; other times, He will ask for small things: fulfilling our duties, carrying out the practices of piety set in our plan of life at the scheduled hour without giving way to laziness, mortifying our imagination and memory regarding banal matters, attentively living charity with those around us, or graciously giving directions when asked… Perhaps the Lord will present Himself—maybe when we least expect it—to invite us to follow Him even more closely; perhaps without leaving our duties in the middle of the world, but with the full surrender of our heart according to our state in life, setting no limits or conditions.
“We must know how to give ourselves, to burn before God like that light placed upon the candlestick to illuminate those who walk in darkness; like those small lamps that burn beside the altar, consuming themselves as they give light until they are spent”8. And He asks this of all of us: each in their place and state to which they are called, in the unique vocation received from God. This vocation is the most important matter in life, and, once known, the business in which we must engage with tenacity, with the help of grace, until the very last moment of our days.
HCD