“All things betray thee, who betrayed Me.”

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“Naught shelters thee, who will not shelter Me.”

- from “The Hound of Heaven”

by Francis Thompson.

We can all say those lines with real meaning, because when we were God’s enemies, He showed His love : “God so loved the world that He gave up His only-begotten Son, so that those who believe in Him may not perish, but have eternal life.”

We have seen the lengths to which Christ’s love took Him : born in poverty in an unknown village, doing the daily work of a carpenter’s boy, teaching, preaching, doing good to the sick and lame and blind and sinners, until finally He gave the last drop of His blood in a shameful death for those to whom He had come to give life.

We have seen how God accepted His Son’s offering and restored Him to a wonderful new life which He shares with all those who suffer and die with Him.

When He returned to His Father, Christ sent the Holy Spirit to be our light and our strength. And He Himself comes to meet us in the seven sacraments – at those points of our human life where we most feel need of help.

And finally, He waits to take us from this life into the full light and happiness of never-ending union with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in heaven.

My story is the story of a young thief who cheats and robs a good and generous man. But this man comes and takes him into his own family and makes him his own son.

WHAT ANSWER?

Certainly it is difficult to believe such a story of love, especially when it is love for me.

Here I must pause quietly and in the silence of my own heart ask what answer such a story demands of me.

The one answer possible is gratitude. I should give thanks to one who has taken such trouble for me.

At this point, anyone who reads the story of Christ must stop to ask himself or herself whether it is all simply poetry, drama or a nice story to read. Or whether in the depths of my own heart I realize that Jesus Christ is a loving person who is truly interested in me – who calls to me, personally.