love, evangelization, and punishment
"The slave who knew his master's wishes but did not prepare to fulfill them will get a severe beating." —Luke 12:47
Do you know that the Lord "wants all men to be saved and come to know the truth"? (1 Tm 2:4) If so, you must "prepare to fulfill" the Lord's wishes, or you "will get a severe beating" (Lk 12:47). Because God is Love (1 Jn 4:16), He must do everything possible to get His lifesaving gospel out to the whole world. He must insist that the one-and-a-half billion Christians in the world share their faith with the four billion non-Christians. If God didn't punish us for not evangelizing, would He be Love? (see 1 Jn 4:16) "When much has been given a man, much will be required of him. More will be asked of a man to whom more has been entrusted" (Lk 12:48).
1997 is the year of Jesus in preparation for the two-thousandth anniversary of Jesus' Incarnation and the beginning of the third millennium. Is this year of Jesus going to be merely "lip service" (see Mt 15:8), or are we going to proclaim the good news of Jesus in the expectation of His final coming at any moment? Therefore, "in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, Who is coming to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingly power, I charge you to preach the word, to stay with this task whether convenient or inconvenient — correcting, reproving, appealing — constantly teaching and never losing patience" (2 Tm 4:1-2). "Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to all creation" (Mk 16:15). Don't make the Lord punish you out of His love.
Prayer: Father, discipline and scourge me as much as is necessary (Heb 12:6) for me to choose to obey You.
Promise: "Offer yourselves to God as men who have come back from the dead to life, and your bodies to God as weapons for justice. Sin will no longer have power over you; you are now under grace, not under the law." —Rm 6:13-14
Praise: Victor, an abortionist, decided to stop performing abortions when he observed the faith with which a bishop accepted his terminal illness and death.
Nihil Obstat: Reverend Robert L. Hagedorn, March 22, 1997
Imprimatur: †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, March 26, 1997