“Change”

I have to say that I can spend too much time trying to figure out how to change the world. “If this guy would do this and that woman would do that”, then things would get better. If we had more real saints in the church, then we could really begin some serious evangelization. If this stupid Covid would disappear, maybe we could get on with life….. if, if, if, if  

Pope Francis recently said “ the best way to change the world is to change myself….. may we not wait for our neighbors to be good, before we do good to them, for the church to be perfect before we love her, for others to respect us before we serve them… let us begin with ourselves.” (Magnificat, Jan. 2021, page 114)  Stop trying to change others, and try to change yourself”.

Hmmm, doesn’t he realize that I’m not the problem.  If others would change then maybe I could do a little better.” I don’t have time to try and change some “extremely minute character flaw” ….. I’m busy contemplating the universe, figuring out does  “ E really = mc² ” …….  wooooo, slow down Einstein.   

I’m struck by how the saints often lived in very difficult circumstances…so severe that many of them became martyrs…giving their very lives in following the Lord. They became holy in the midst of these circumstances. I can’t imagine them saying to the Lord, “ once things get better than I’ll get holy”. So, I believe that the Lord wants us to strive for holiness in the midst of our current situation, no matter how difficult…. And who knows, we might help change the world.  Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to change us.

Listen to the “prayer of St. Francis”:  

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.