Thought for the Day – 25 October – ‘What gain is it to please the world?’

Thought for the Day – 25 October – Friday of the Twenty Ninth week in Ordinary Time, Year C, Gospel: Luke 12:54-59

“Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” … Luke 12:56

“Oh that we could take that simple view of things, as to feel that the one thing which lies before us is to please God!   What gain is it to please the world, to please the great, even to please those whom we love, compared with this?   What gain is it to be applauded, admired, courted, followed, compared with this one aim, of not being disobedient to a heavenly vision?   What can this world offer comparable with that insight into spiritual things, that keen faith, that heavenly peace, that high sanctity, that everlasting righteousness, that hope of glory, which they have who in sincerity love and follow our Lord Jesus Christ?

Let us beg and pray Him day by day, to reveal Himself to our souls more fully,
to quicken our senses,
to give us sight and hearing, taste and touch of the world to come,
so to work within us, that we may sincerely say,
“Thou shall guide me with Thy counsel” and after that receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but Thee?   And there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee – my flesh and my heart fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Saint John Henry Newman (1801-1890)