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2_A lifelong companion

 

If you are seeking something, pause for a moment.

Restlessness brings no rewards.  I have something to tell you that may interest you: "Be temperate, be vigilant!". The Apostle Peter (1 Peter 5:8) said this to the recipients of one of his letters, he who was a restless disciple of Jesus, so much so that in the Garden of Olives he resorted to the sword, which Christ made him put away.

I would also like to repeat this to you, my friend who is listening to me!

Confucius said that even small excesses can ruin great plans. Be temperate! Drugs bring no rewards! Violence brings no rewards! Selfishness brings no rewards!

The Catechism of the Catholic church lists it among the cardinal virtues, and its synonyms are frugality, moderation, sobriety, order and balance. What can we say? The world loves excess; the media rewards it headlines.

And yet, we are all convinced that consumerism, even though we cannot help ourselves, brings no rewards: nature rebels, social crises increase, life is ruined!

Gide - a tormented French writer - had reinvented the parable of the prodigal son, believing that really living lay in the willingness to have every experience; then he confessed that he had not found happiness in that either.

Temperance... It is temperance that teaches you the pursuit of good, your own and that of others, and it is vested in charity.  Noble charity! The  charity has a link with God, that gives us a hand to descend the steps in the dark moments of life.

It is not a virtue for the weak.  Mary made it her lifelong companion.

You should try it too!
 

Fernando Cardinal Filoni

(October 2021)