More people than ever respect "neither God nor man" (Lk 18:2). These people are powerfully continuing and promoting great injustices. They "care little for God or man" (Lk 18:4). They are "lovers of self and of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, profane, inhuman, implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating the good. They will be treacherous, reckless, pompous, lovers of pleasure rather than of God" (2 Tm 3:2-4). "They did not see fit to acknowledge God, so God delivered them up to their own depraved sense to do what is unseemly. They are filled with every kind of wickedness: maliciousness, greed, ill will, envy, murder, bickering, deceit, craftiness. They are gossips and slanderers, they hate God, are insolent, haughty, boastful, ingenious in their wrongdoing and rebellious toward their parents. One sees in them men without conscience, without loyalty, without affection, without pity" (Rm 1:28-31).
These people are extremely dangerous. They could murder, rape, and mutilate you without feeling even a tinge of guilt. However, these people are afraid. They are like the unjust judge in today's Gospel reading who was paranoid enough to think that the defenseless widow in his court room would end by doing him violence (Lk 18:5). Evil people are always unstable. As St. Augustine said, their hearts are restless until they rest in God. This means that these people are not only dangerous but changeable, even "convert-able."
Some of the most evil people in the world are about to repent. Be like Ananias and go to the raging, hateful Sauls of the world to offer them new life in Jesus (Acts 9:10ff).
| PRAYER: | Father, use me to reach those most desperately lost. |
| PROMISE: | "When the Son of Man comes, will He find the faith on the earth?" –Lk 18:8, our transl. |
| PRAISE: | Just by being herself, Michelle brought her Catholic faith and views into her college classroom discussions. |
Reprinted with permission from Presentation Ministries, a lay association of the Catholic Church that focuses on evangelization and discipleship through Bible teaching, daily Mass, the charisms of the Holy Spirit, and Small Christian Community. Their ministries include:
· One Bread, One Body
· Daily Bread Radio Program
· Annual Bible Institute
· Discipleship Retreats
· Guadalupe Bible College