The Candle in a Hurricane

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There is a time during the life of a Christian filled with near violent tribulation. This time is often described using an image of a candle in a hurricane. This spot is yet a significant, pivotal moment in the Christians life making the jump between the consolations of this world and the nature of the goods of the next. The enemy uses everything possible to either convince the Christian that it is not safe or make it appear undesirable. Every force employed will cause the Christian to question and doubt what lies ahead and the voice that is leading them. The Christian must be careful that this turmoil does not extinguish the light within nor the love for God that begets the trust.

There is scarcely greater risk to either lose everything sacrificed for up until now and which still is what is most wanted in abandonment to proximate goods (i.e. the greatest of all eternal lives in relationship with the One we love more than a father, a spouse, or a young child) or lose any hope of recovering what one once had before the journey had begun. This is where faith means something very concrete and decisive. We can recall when Abraham took Lot with Him after he agreed to go alone (Genesis 12:1, 4). This moment requires more than external choices but an internal disposition, because this is what salvation must come to, either one is willing to love God even when it hurts the most or one really does not actually love God.

In conclusion, in moments like these it is absolutely essential to be 100% present to not only the desire to be saved but to be able to express love of God by suffering well. Where finally does our allegiance lie? It is very merciful that this question is posed to the Christian at this moment when grace is working most effectively in the heart that has welcomed it, and the Christian is most willing to do their part. This is the moment of justification wherein the graces of baptism are fully received and realized. "Through the power of the Holy Spirit we take part in Christ's Passion by dying to sin, and in his Resurrection by being born to a new life; we are members of his Body which is the Church, branches grafted onto the vine which is himself: [God] gave himself to us through his Spirit. By the participation of the Spirit, we become communicants in the divine nature. . . . For this reason, those in whom the Spirit dwells are divinized."[1] Once the Christian has achieved this "rectitude of divine love", God can affect great thing in them and with them.[2]

Walt Whitman:

I knew a man unto whom God had given

To be ruler 'mid his fellows. High

Towered he over all the multitude.

Renown, and rank, and popular applause

Were his. And then a season more passed by,

And by the fickle mass the man was scorned.

Now sick at heart, and clouds upon his path,

And danger o'er his head, and hope away,

And scowls, and clenched fists at his advance

Assailing him—yet he stood forth and smiled:

Loftily waiving his symbol in the air,

And as his eye lit up with sparkling fire,

Loudly he pealed the inspiring battle-phrase,

No turning back! Then, those, his drooping friends,

Took heart once more, and fought in his behalf;

And foes, who would have crushed him in the dust,

Had he but yielded aught, were filled with fear;

And on this noble man a conquerer marched,

Doubly renowned, and doubly great again.

No turning back! O, youth, a weary road

Spreads out before you! Hidden grief lurks there,

And burning fires of vice lie smouldering there,

And disappointment's clutching fangs wait there;

But far ahead, up in the height of heaven,

Glitters a star. O, let thy constant gaze

Be fixed upon that star; step not away,

But gazing on the brightness of the guide,

Press forward to the end and falter not!

FN:

  1. Catechism of the Catholic Church. 1988.
  2. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1991.

I am a created entity, not a person.

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