Day 21 – Let Freedom Ring: Freedom from Indifference

Print this article Font Size -16+

Fr Richard Heilman July 27, 2020

Let Freedom Ring: Freedom from Indifference

My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
At a word from You, the devil and his minions flee in terror.
You are the source of all truth. You are the source of all strength.
By the power of Your Cross and Resurrection, we beseech You, O Lord
To extend Your saving arm and to send Your holy angels
To defend us as we do battle with Satan and his demonic forces.
Exorcise, we pray, that which oppresses Your Bride, The Church,
So that within ourselves, our families, our parishes, our dioceses, and our nation
We may turn fully back to You in all fidelity and trust.
Lord, we know if You will it, it will be done.
Give us the perseverance for this mission, we pray.
Amen.

Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception … pray for us
St. Joseph … pray for us
St. Michael the Archangel … pray for us
(the patron of your parish) … pray for us
(your confirmation saint) … pray for us

“Freedom from Indifference” by Fr. Jim Altman

Dear family, of all the things about which we can “take it or leave it,” going deeper into our Faith is not one of them. We cannot be indifferent to our Faith.

When we try to reflect on some principle of our Faith – like “indifference” – it is always good to refer to the Catechism to get a working definition so we all are on the same page. That was my starting point.

So, §2093 states: “Faith in God’s love encompasses the call and the obligation to respond with sincere love to divine charity. The first commandment enjoins us to love God above everything and all creatures for him and because of him.” Ok. So good so far.

Then it follows up with §2094 which states: “One can sin against God’s love in various ways” – and then includes the definition for indifference: “indifference neglects or refuses to reflect on divine charity; it fails to consider its prevenient goodness and denies its power.”

Oh, dear family, my head hurts when I try to read something like §2094, something someone cannot seem to put in understandable language. If I asked you – exactly what does it mean to fail to consider Divine Charity’s prevenient goodness and deny its power? … could you answer the question? Don’t feel badly if you couldn’t; I couldn’t either. I had to look up the word “prevenient” and then try to place it in some sort of context of “goodness” and then try to figure out how does refusing to reflect on divine charity had anything to do with understanding prevenient goodness and, more so, what that has to do with denying its power? Is it any wonder people do not get through the Catechism when they run into roadblocks like this? I say all this just so you know: You are not alone. Even priests sometimes struggle with this stuff.

For the record, the definition of prevenient is: preceding in time or order; antecedent. So, indifference, which apparently is neglecting to reflect on divine charity, means failing to consider it’s “preceding in time or order, antecedent” goodness. But what does that even mean???

In the Law, there is an ongoing movement to take “legalese” – the formal and technical language of legal documents that is often hard to understand – and put it into “plain English.” So let us try to do that here.

God loved us first. His love preceded us, preceded our very existence. His love was so great that He willed to create us into existence so He could share His love with us. And then, when we did not love Him back – that’s that whole Fall of Adam and Eve thing, and every sin ever since – He still loved us so much that He sent His only Son to suffer and die in order to prove His love which, hopefully, would inspire us to love Him back. In fact, He sent His Son even though He knew full well exactly what some of us would do to Him because He knew it would be proof of His Divine Love. It is why St. Paul – so cognizant of this infinite love of God – hardly could keep in the immensity of his praise and worship for God when he wrote to the Ephesians: “Praised be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, Who has bestowed on us in Christ every spiritual blessing in the heavens. God chose us in Him before the world began to be holy and blameless in His sight. He predestined us to be His adopted sons through Jesus Christ, such was His will and pleasure, that all might praise the glorious favor He has bestowed on us in His beloved. In Him, and through His blood, we have been redeemed, and our sins forgiven, so immeasurably generous is God’s favor to us” (Eph 1:3-7).

It is no accident that in the Breviary, the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours, this passage is prayed every Monday at Evening Prayer. It, along with the entire Breviary, is a constant reminder of God’s love for us. To pray the Liturgy of the Hours actually is to contemplate and reflect upon Divine Charity. It is the opposite of indifference.

So maybe by considering the opposite of indifference, we get a better understanding of whether or not we are indifferent. If we want to know if we have fallen victim to indifference, perhaps the best answer is to ask the question: do we immerse ourselves daily in contemplating God’s love so much so that we, like St. Paul, are compelled to praise and worship God in such words as he wrote to the Ephesians? Do we reflect enough upon the magnitude of God’s love, expressed in our very own existence, such that we are compelled to give back to Him even just a tithing of the countless gifts He has given us?

Having just celebrated two Holy Masses of Christian Burial, this thought is fresh in my mind, the words prayed after the final Song of Farewell: “We give you thanks for the blessings which you bestowed upon (decedent) in this life: they are signs to us of your goodness and of our fellowship with the saints in Christ.”

God’s blessings are indeed signs of His goodness, signs of His infinite Love. Are we indifferent to those signs of His goodness and love? Are we so unaware of His signs that we are disconnected from Him that we can take it or leave it? Or do we, in our daily contemplation, reflect so deeply upon those signs of His love that we are compelled, like St. Paul, to sing out such words as that hymn written way back in 1674 – amazingly enough, before even indoor plumbing and anesthesia: “Praise God from Whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye Heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.”

Prayer of Reparation

My Lord and my God,
We have allowed the temptation of the devil to move our hearts toward indifference to Your Divine Love.
We have fallen into countless times of sinful diversions from our purpose in life, which is to know, love and serve You in this world.
We are so immersed in things of this world, have we devoted ourselves so greatly to treasures on earth, that we have become indifferent to the treasures we must store up in Heaven?
We spend so much time and effort and money on things that moth and decay will destroy, only to discover that we still are not satisfied, we still are not happy.
We turn to You Lord, in our weakness, and beg Your forgiveness for our indifference to the treasures of Heaven, the greatest treasure being Your love.
We love You, Lord, and we beg for the wisdom and strength to love You more.
We know, Lord, if You will it, it will be done.
Trusting in You, we offer our prayer to You who live and reign forever and ever.
Amen.

Prayer of Exorcism

Lord God of Heaven and Earth,
In Your power and goodness, You created all things.
You set a path for us to walk on and a way to an eternal relationship.
By the strength of Your arm and Word of Your mouth
Cast from Your Holy Church every fearful deceit of the Devil
Drive from us manifestations of the demonic that oppress us and beckon us to faithlessness and fear.
Still the lying tongue of the devil and his forces so that we may act freely and faithfully to Your will.
Send Your holy angels to cast out all influence that the demonic entities in charge of fear have planted in Your church.
Free us, our families, our parish, our diocese, and our country from all trickery and deceit perpetrated by the Devil and his hellish legions.
Trusting in Your goodness Lord,
We know if You will it, it will be done in unity with Your Son and the Holy Spirit, One God for ever and ever.
Amen.

Litany of Humility

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being loved,
Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, etc.
From the desire of being honored,
From the desire of being praised,
From the desire of being preferred to others,
From the desire of being consulted,
From the desire of being approved,
From the fear of being humiliated,
From the fear of being despised,
From the fear of suffering rebukes,
From the fear of being calumniated,
From the fear of being forgotten,
From the fear of being ridiculed,
From the fear of being wronged,
From the fear of being suspected,

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase
and I may decrease,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I go unnoticed,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I,
provided that I may become as holy as I should,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.