driving a convert-able
"Listen to what the corrupt judge has to say." —Luke 18:6
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: Thomas was so patient with his boss that his boss was moved to conversion and faith in Jesus.
Reference: (For related teaching, order our leaflet, Mission Impossible.)
Rescript: ..
The Nihil Obstat ("Permission to Publish") is a declaration that a book or pamphlet is considered to be free of doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat agree with the contents, opinions, or statements expressed.
Nihil Obstat: Reverend Robert L. Hagedorn, April 4, 1998
Imprimatur: †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, April 8, 1998