I have been visiting various European countries and have been out of touch with you, but certainly not out of touch with insipring sermons, the most recent of which I heard in Edinburgh, Scotland. You may recall this quote from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 12:
Jesus said to his disciples, "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing."
As this remarkable Jesuit spoke of the fire the Holy Spirit sets in our hearts if we welcome Him in, he assured us that if we were truly putting Christ in the center of our thoughts, words and deeds, there would indeed be division in our midst as not all people find it "nice" to have others preaching and teaching Christ's truth.
How true this is, particularly in our struggle to insist that people look beyond polite rhetoric and see the fact that an act of abortion is an act of murder, an act that takes the life of on innocent person. Few if any like to hear those words, and even fewer want to view the results: the bodies of the dead children.
So our challenge is, it seems to me, to be loving yet honest in our tactics to defend the innocent. We must at all times and in all places remember that we are called, through the inspiration and leading of the Holy Spirit, to speak for those who cannot speak for themseves. We are their voices, and our message must never be waxed with cultural rhetoric but rather with the sweet message of truth.
I said a word of thanks to that Croatian Jesuit for being in Edinburgh on the very Sunday when I was in need of hearing his message.
