Manifest Destiny
Author: Andrew Comiskey
January 05, 2024
My ‘gay’-identified
friend Tim needs Jesus. Finally. It’s taken decades and a terminal condition
for him to soften to the God-man. And I have loved every minute: watching,
waiting, and tending to that Fire of love, God’s wooing of Tim.
That’s
why I live. You too, Christian. God spared our lives to manifest His life.
That’s our destiny. And we each do it a little differently. What unites us is
that we are most alive, most true to our design and its original colors when we
love others as He gifts and guides us to do so.
On
the eve of Epiphany (literally, ‘manifestation’), we do Magi magic simply by making
Him known in little, meaningful ways for the one whose life depends on His.
Epiphany
2024 provokes me. Each of the 12 mornings of Christmas, I woke up still stunned
by Pope Francis’ weird nod to worldliness in Fiducia Supplicans. My
biggest concern is for authentic sinners who won’t hear the Gospel in the bickering
over ‘irregular’ blessings. Instead of fretting, I pray: ‘Father, use this
declarative mess to stir up the gifts St. Paul stoked in Timothy (2 Tim. 1:6); remind
me of Your power to “grant the sin-weary repentance unto truth, so they can come
to their senses and escape demonic captivity” (2 Tim. 2:25-26). Make me an
answer to my own prayer!
I urge
you to let God take you deeper than this muddle and tap into His heart for your
lost friends and loved ones. Remember how far He went to find and enliven you
with the Light of His beautiful face! You reflect that face (2 Cor. 4:6). And
your loved one hungers for that face more than a blessing over his ‘irregular’
status.
This exhortation
of Fr. Alfred Delp calls us all to stand in the gap for lost loved ones. As
darkness increases in the world and worldly church, may the Spirit embolden
intercessors like you and me. May we embody the prayers we pray for sinners on the
brink of repentance; may we shine like lights in the haze, holding out Life for
all who will (Phil. 2:12):
‘God
stands as Accuser and Judge when we persist in sin. He stands as Liberator and
Savior when we turn to Him, uniting with Him against sin. That means that the
time of the great intercessors has come. We will lift our need and our right to
God and bring our times into deep union with God. The great outcry to God must
begin and not let up…
There
is a confidence that calls out to Him, a confidence from which He likes to be
called upon. The realization of many great things, many genuine miracles,
depends only upon our trust in God’s great generosity….Anyone possessed of this
confidence will be certain of the result; he would leave the means up to the
Lord God. And anyone whose own self-reliance is overcome by the Lord in this
way is left standing speechless and astonished.
The
time of the great intercessors has come. Prayer doesn’t mean some passive
approach dispensing us from action and responsibility. To the contrary, this is
a much harder principle of action. The time of pure action, simultaneously
consecrated from within, has come. Ignatius says that the interior life must
fill and support the exterior efforts and make them fruitful. That is the
precept for this time. Today more than ever, action, commitment, and
achievement must unfold from devoted worship.
There
is no reason to lose heart or give up and be depressed. Instead, this is a time
for confidence and for tirelessly calling upon God. We must unite ourselves to
God against our distress…That establishes the measure to which God commits
Himself. His nearness is as intimate as our longing is genuine. His mercy is as
great as our call to Him is earnest. His liberation is as near and effective as
our faith in Him and His mercy is unshaken, unshakeable. That’s the truth!’
(Father
Alfred Delp: Tegel Prison Munich, December 1944)
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