It’s been 50 plus years since my 11 years of playing football, including three years starting offensive lineman in college. I can’t tell you how many coaches and how many times we were reminded to Focus! Focus! Focus! With Holy Week around the corner, I want you to Focus!

We have been pondering suffering so far this Lent with the writings of Ruth Pakaluk. In this blog I want to use two of my favorite authors: Servant of God Luis M. Martinez and Dr. Mary Healy to aid us.

Remember, we are created by God and for God, who desires us to spend eternity with Him. Sin separates and hinders us in our quest for God. God is seeking us to be like Him: perfect, holy, loving and merciful. He is with us and dwells within us. Don’t lose sight of these things, especially amidst suffering.

“Every time we suffer a calamity in our spiritual life, we grow alarmed and think we have lost our way. For we have fancied an even road for ourselves, a footpath, a way strewn with flowers. Hence, upon finding ourselves in a rough way, one filled with thorns, one lacking all attraction, we think we have lost the road, whereas it is only that the ways of God are very different from our ways.

“The ways of God for attaining perfection are ways of struggle, of dryness, of humiliations, and even of falls. To be sure, there is light and peace and sweetness in the spiritual life…. above anything that could be desired, and …. surpasses all the consolations of earth. There is all this, but all in its proper time; and in each instance it is something transient. What is usual and most common in the spiritual life are those periods in which we are compelled to suffer, and which disconcert us because we were expecting something different…. Therefore, it is most important in the spiritual life to realize that we are not lost when we travel those strange roads. We need only realize that they are God’s ways, that it will cost us much effort to walk them, and that we shall need much abnegation to travel them. Yet they are the true ways to attain perfection.” (Secrets of the Interior Life, by Servant of God Luis M. Martinez, Cluny Media)

Commenting on the Gospel of Mark 1:40-45, Dr. Healy says, “We must never pass over these reminders about how Jesus is moved at the sight of our suffering…. The leper’s suffering and isolation fills Jesus with compassion. In his sacred, human heart the Lord suffers because one of his children is suffering…. Jesus’ mercy is all-powerful. There are many problems in the world and in others’ lives we cannot fix. Jesus shows his lordship – the healing power of his mercy – by touching the leper.” (Commentary on The Gospel of Mark; Dr. Mary Healy, Baker Publishing)

Dr. Healy gives us our “Focus”: “No matter our sins, we need not fear coming close to the Lord. When we have shown him our wounds, which we do in the sacrament of penance, Jesus has compassion on us and heals us.”

For Reflection:
Why is it important that I am reminded to be focused when it comes to my spiritual life? What are the ways God uses to bring about my perfection? How have I experienced Jesus’ healing power of mercy? Do I see suffering as a means God can use for my ultimate healing?

Prayer:
Jesus, God of Mercy, help me never forget Your great compassion and desire to heal me. Jesus, have mercy on me and on the whole world.

(blogged March 15, 2024)
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