Have you ever experienced that moment in your life where you look at everything you have, all the blessings you possess, and thought: “I am so blessed”?
I know I have.
Hubby and I are celebrating 10 years of marriage later this year and we’ve been reflecting a bit on this milestone and our lives up to this point and we can’t help but feel as though we have been profoundly blessed.
Now, I could list all of the things that we are thankful for but that would be to digress.
Yes, we are very blessed and I feel as though Jesus is speaking directly to us when He says: “To whom much has been given, much will be expected.” [cf. Luke 12:48]
We fit that bill.
We do not want for anything materially. Our lives are blessedly secure and stable. We do not live hand to mouth nor have we had to watch our children suffer through starvation.
We can, usually, afford to buy what we need, when we need it. We do not live pay cheque to pay cheque and the only debt we have is that of mortgage.
Our children are healthy and robust. Yes, one has a life threatening allergy but she is still with us. We have had five pregnancies and five healthy children delivered.
We chose to live in an area where there are other like-minded Catholics and have the luxury of sending our children to an independent Catholic school which teaches the Truth.
I am blessed to be able to stay home with our small children. And the only persecution we have suffered for our faith has been related to the number of children we have.
And it is precisely these blessings that make me wonder how much God is expecting of me?
I have been given much, and much will be expected of me.
But how much is enough?
That’s a question I doubt I will be able to answer. But it is worth asking anyway.
We are probably very much like you. We donate to charity, monetarily each month through Catholic Mission and Caritas and practically through clothing and goods or time and social media work.
We go to Mass every Sunday and contribute to Planned Giving.
We spend time volunteering in different capacities to our local faith community through mother’s groups, playgroups, book clubs, men’s groups.
We have spent time in ministry though now it’s certainly much more to our children than anything else. We try to practice what we preach and provide the best witness we can in the hopes that others might encounter Christ in us.
We pray as a family and try to be effective faith educators to our children.
But is this enough?
I still don’t know.
What I do know is this: God is calling each of us to be saints. Some will be called to be saints with a capital ‘S’; the ones recognised by the Church and held up as inspiration. But not all will. Some will be called to be saints with a lower case ‘s’; not recognised by the Church in a public way but part of the Communion of Saints in Heaven nonetheless.
And so I think the message we can take from Jesus’ words is that it is harder for us, who are cushioned and complacent, to achieve holiness and sanctity. His description of it being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter Heaven [cf. Matthew 19:24] is confronting and maybe we’d like to think that we’re not that rich man.
I think we are.
We might not be rich in the excessively wealthy Hollywood way but we are rich nonetheless. We live in the ‘lucky country’ and take for granted so many things that people in other countries take for granted.
We have been given much and much is expected of us.
We’re called to be saints, but the danger of this environment we live in is to become complacent and stagnant in our spiritual progress.
Use this time of Lent to take stock of your blessings and the gifts you have been given and to make the changes you need to guide your camel through the eye of the needle.
Hopefully I’ll see you on the other side; communing with our fellow saints, or Saints, as the case may be!
Originally posted 2017-03-14 01:26:40.