From The Bishop

One of the great stumbling blocks to receiving God’s mercy is to live in the past. I believe that is what Jesus means when he states, in the Gospel of St. Luke, “No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” This Gospel for the 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time offers this insight to those who wish to be followers of the Lord. Anyone who has plowed a field knows that in order to ensure that the furrows are straight you need to look ahead. Looking back will only create a mess in the field because you do not know where you are going. We can do the same in our spiritual life. Sometimes past sins, failures, or missed opportunities can cause us to doubt God’s mercy. This limits our ability to honestly assess where we are going in the spiritual life. St. Therese of Lisieux in her “Little Way” understood this very well. She thought that we focus too much on our dark side, our ugliness, and not enough on God who is the Light of Light. She believed that we needed to have confidence in the consuming furnace of His Love for us. Shortly before her death, St. Therese stated, “You may truly say that if I had committed all possible crimes, I would still have the same confidence; I would feel that this multitude of offenses would be like a drop of water thrown into a flaming furnace. All possible crimes, a multitude of offenses, a drop of water in an immense furnace; that is the proportion”. That is looking forward with confidence and not looking back! Let us do the same.