Hot Coal

JMJ+

In his homily on Sunday Father made an interesting point I thought I'd share with you.  He started out talking about Saint Peter, who has always been one of my favorite Saints for this exact reason, and how he messed up quite a few times, he almost drowned when walking on water, he denied Christ, and after Christ died he just went back to fishing as if nothing had changed. Yet in spite of all that, God still called him to be the first Pope. 

He then spoke about his own experiences living in community and how challenging that can be at times. He said sometimes it would be really hard to not lose his temper at others but that eventually he realized that those times of feeling angry at another person are opportunities for growth in holiness. The thing that stood out to me the most was when he said that eventually he was able to say "Thank You God for the hot coals that draw me closer to You."  He also said a number of times, and really the main point of his homily was, that like a hot coal would really hurt when it touches you so does becoming holy.

I think the reason that this concept of holiness hurting but being able to thank God for the pain really hit me is that I'm in the midst of experiencing a  hot coal for myself. In August I graduated from an American Sign Language Interpreting program and in October took my state certification test. Four months later I still don't have my results due to a staff person departing the office about a month or so after I took my test. It's been really hard for me for me and has really been an opporunity to grow in holiness and patience. I'm not quite to the point of being able to thank Him for it but I think it's a really good goal to have. 

I pray that you have a blessed Lenten journey and that God will give you hot coals to draw you closer to Him this year. 

God bless you!