As many young people nowadays, I often think the most important
day of Christianity is Christmas. It is wrong! You know how the death and the
resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ have affected our destiny.
All people would say when seeing somebody facing death is to do
their best to save the victim. Nobody wants to be with the victim in danger.
Yet Jesus not only was with the victim but also made the victim clean and pushed
the victim out of the dangerous situation. He willingly suffered all in the
place of the victim. You know you and I are sinners – the victim. He washed our
sins with His blood and also prayed for our forgiveness “Father, forgive them,
they know not what they do”. It is not obvious? What if you were the parents
and you saw your children being persecuted in the hands of the evil people who
even want to put them to death? What would you do? You would be willing to
forgive them? I think it is really hard for you to answer. You may say you just
want to tear them into pieces if you have a chance. But the heavenly Father
forgave us because of his Son who was willing to lay his own life on the cross
at once for us all - traitors, persecutors and sinners - that we are saved by
Him. On that very day, he gave us a chance to go back to God with humble and
contrite hearts “harden not your heart”.
I must say it is very difficult to be a good person without our Lord
Jesus Christ. Many people I saw in my life, had to undergo different hardships
but they never gave up. When they went to the Holy Mass, they seemed to become new
persons, strengthened, after they received the Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
Jesus Christ still remains in each of us. I saw their faces shine with joy and
some were willing to abandon their evil thoughts and acts. A true story reminds
me of that truth from time to time. There was a woman who had been waiting for
many years for being reunited with her family abroad. She really longed for
that day. With one of her close friends she decided to see a well-known
fortune-teller to ask whether she could
go or not. When they arrived at the house of the fortune-teller, a young man went
out and said: “My master could not see you today”. They came home and they thought
they would go back the following week. A week passed by, they went back to that
house with a hope. As before, the young man ran out to them and said: “You
should not come here. My master said you were so bright that my master could
not see anything when you were here. Please go away and do not come again”.
They did not understand what happened to them, so they asked for the reason.
Then the young man said to them in reply: “The Person who stays in you hinders
us from seeing”. They asked him: “Who is the Person in us?”. “My master said the
Person Whom you received every week”, he replied. They both remembered that she
had gone to the Holy Mass and received Communion before they came here. Her friend
blamed her: “You should not receive Communion before we came here. Let go back and
wait for the following week and remember not to take Communion”. She nodded her
head slightly and they went home. For the third time, her friend came over to
pick her up. When her friend asked her, she confessed sadly that she had received
Communion as usual. Her friend looked intently at her and said to her: “I told
you but you did not remember… I think you should put on as many clothes as
possible and we will depart in the evening. This may make you not bright any
more”. She did as her friend told her. And then they went back to the house of
the fortune-teller as they planned. The young man immediately ran out and
shouted at them: “Do not come near. Why are you so stubborn like this”. She realized
at once that the Holy Body and the Blood of Christ was always with her in spite
of concealment or the passing of time and she cried out in tears: “O Lord Jesus
Christ…my God…forgive me…please…forgive me…”. She went home and wept a lot with
her repentant heart. Then she prayed hard and promised to God that she would
never commit sin again. A year later, she received the good news that she would
be reunited with her family abroad. So I believe that our Lord Jesus Christ
will transform our spirit every time we run to Him. He never refuses sinners who
in their weaknesses go to Him “Do not be afraid to return to God”.
The Lord Jesus Christ’s eyes always look at all of us, at our
weaknesses, at our sins because His Love is endless and limitless.
Christ’s Cross takes away our sins and His Love embraces us, leads
us in His Way by which we will enter the kingdom of God – the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever.
Mary Nguyen Thi Kim Hanh
