Dear Readers
God needs us. Jesus said to St Faustina “Help me, my daughter, to save souls” (Diary 1032)
God is omnipotently powerful but he needs us human beings. God needed John the Baptist to fulfil his mission and prepare the world for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
The Lord wants us to be in the shade, invisible in the background like St John the Baptist. It’s easy for us to think of John the Baptist as simply the forerunner and herald of Jesus Christ, but he was quite famous in his own right.
Two points make this very clear:
- People’s hearts were touched by his talks. The movement he began ended up having followers in distant lands. This was through the preaching of individuals who spread his message elsewhere outside of Israel.
- We have information about him from outside the New Testament.
Sometimes we can feel very unworthy, even too little, or sinful but God wants us to be His instruments. He does not send the angels and St Michael does not appear to the people, He sends us. So we need to trust that if we are sent, we have the anointing of the Holy Spirit of certain missions in our lives.
In order to grow spiritually and mature in our faith and holiness we must draw near to God so he can lead and shape us. We cannot mature on our own; we are dependent on Him and know our growth comes through abiding in Christ – dependency on Christ alone – and obedience to His command to love God and love others and to trust.
When Jesus came St John the Baptist, he did not want to be the centre of attention, but stay humbly in the background out of sight just like St Michael ‘Who is like unto God’.
I assure you of the constant daily prayers of the priests of the Congregation of St Michael the Archangel for all our readers and their families.
God bless you.
Fr Peter Prusakiewicz CSMA