Be ambitious for the higher gifts.

We must work hard to help others to achive salvation. We must never forget to love, bearing in mind that Christ did not come to make us nice people. He came to make us new men, and He, who created the world without us, will not save it without us. In order to love we must avoid quietism and compromises with the culture which is not permeated by God. Yet we ought go against the flow to fight for souls for Christ, stepping in His footsteps, whose attitude and sermon in the synagogue of Nazareth made good citizen enraged.

Living amongst people who do not know Christ and his demands, or amongst Catholics who behave as if they were not Catholics, is inevitable. We are exposed to wickedness of agressive culture trying to enter our souls. We are exposed to other expectations and agendas even in our families and amongst our Catholic friends, including our parishes, and our church where we come primarly to worship and give best glory to God alone. We are exposed to unrighteousness and discrimination; to the power of gossips and to the spirit of rejection and desacralisation of religious virtues, spirit of revenge and immodesty in expecting gratitude, envy, and dealing with other temptations. That is a fact, but we do not have to succumb to the anti-Christ behaviour and wickedness around us.

Abp. Fulton J. Sheen reminds us that we become like that which we love. If we love what is base, we become base; but if we love what is noble, we become noble, even amongst If we do not behave as we believe, we will end by believing as we behave.

Even if your closests, even if your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, sprang to their feet and hustled you out of the town intending to discredit you, to throw you down, be ambitious – love and do not create needs for yourself. Kneel perseveringly at the Tabernacle, either bodily or in your heart, so as to feel safe and calm: but also in order to feel loved… and to love without condition.

Be ambitious for the higher gifts and become one with the Crucified. Be drawn by the fire of love, by consuming charity, as love is greater than our human frame.

Fr Stan