Divine Appeal Reflection - 187
Today, consider in Divine Appeal 187: "The obstinacy of long ago continues to dominate and exist in My Church... With godless consciences corruption has reached the limit."
The words of this Appeal descend into one of the most hidden mysteries of the spiritual life: a soul can remain outwardly religious while becoming inwardly resistant to God. “The obstinacy of long ago continues” reveals that what was once a wound can become a habit, what was once tolerated can become a culture, and what was once resisted can eventually appear normal. Pharaoh saw signs and remained hardened (cf. Ex 7–14); Israel tasted manna from heaven and still returned to murmuring (cf. Ex 16:2–8; Num 14:1–4). Yet Jonah reveals something even subtler: he knew God's mercy, but resisted the manner in which God desired to distribute it (cf. Jon 4:1–11). His heart had become unable to rejoice in a mercy that exceeded his expectations. Here lies a hidden form of obstinacy: the soul no longer permits God to surprise it. We can unconsciously construct a God who agrees with our preferences, blesses our judgments, confirms our plans and forgives according to our calculations. We may pray for conversion while secretly asking God to convert everyone except ourselves. We may desire holiness provided it does not disturb our comfort. Grace is never merely an ornament placed upon an otherwise unchanged life; it is God's living action drawing the soul beyond its present limits and into deeper conformity with Christ . The unsettling question is therefore profoundly personal: Can Jesus still contradict me? Can He ask me to forgive when my wounded heart demands justice, surrender when I insist on control, remain hidden when I hunger for recognition, speak gently when I feel justified in retaliating, or love someone whom I have already condemned within myself (cf. Mt 5:44–48; Lk 6:27–36; Rom 12:17–21)? Here prayer becomes more than consolation; it becomes the place where Christ touches the resistance of the will and invites the soul beyond what it would naturally choose . Obstinacy begins when our own certainty becomes more precious to us than obedience to God's truth. The soul can kneel before God while secretly demanding that God agree with it. True surrender begins when we allow Him to correct our judgments, purify our desires, and lead us where self-love would never choose to go (cf. Prov 3:5–7; Is 55:8–9; Heb 12:5–11).
The words concerning “godless consciences” lead us into the most secret chamber of the human person. Conscience is sacred precisely because there God summons the person toward truth; it is not a private court where truth may be rewritten according to desire (cf. CCC 1776–1802). Yet something frightening can happen when truth is repeatedly resisted. The first compromise hurts. The second requires an explanation. The third becomes easier because the explanation has become familiar. Eventually the soul may cease defending the action because it has ceased noticing the wound. What once wounded the conscience can become part of the furniture of the soul. Scripture speaks of hearts becoming hardened and consciences losing their sensitivity . This is more mysterious than the mere presence of sin: the soul can gradually lose the inner sight by which it recognizes that it has drifted from God. Conscience can become accustomed to darkness until what once caused trembling is renamed prudence, necessity, affection, discipline, or even zeal (cf. Is 5:20; Eph 4:18–19; 1 Tim 4:2). A worker may manipulate figures and call it professional cleverness; a student may cheat repeatedly until integrity appears foolish; a married person may nurture an emotional attachment outside the covenant while continually calling it innocent friendship; a parent may wound a child through humiliation and defend it as discipline; a parish volunteer may reveal another's private weakness while presenting the disclosure as concern for the community . More subtly, the soul can surround itself with religious practices while avoiding the conversion those practices demand: many prayers without forgiveness, frequent devotions without restitution, Eucharistic reception without examination of conscience, service without charity, or spiritual conversation without obedience . The frightening point is that sin can eventually become invisible to the person who repeatedly excuses it. Prayer then becomes essential not merely for consolation but for illumination: before God, the soul asks Him to uncover what self-love has taught it not to see . Conversion begins when grace restores the capacity to call things by their true names. St. John Henry Newman emphasized the formation of conscience in truth, while St. Mary of Jesus Crucified manifested an extraordinary simplicity before God. The examination of conscience therefore needs a deeper question than “What have I done?” It must enter the silence beneath our excuses and ask: “What has stopped troubling me? What have I learned to defend that I once knew I needed to surrender? Where have I become incapable of being pierced by truth?” A living conscience trembles when grace touches it. A dying conscience explains why it should not tremble.
“The obstinacy of long ago continues to dominate and exist in My Church” also unveils the mystery of spiritual inheritance. Some patterns are consciously chosen; others are absorbed so gradually that people scarcely recognize them as patterns at all. A family can inherit anger. A community can inherit suspicion. An institution can inherit secrecy. A religious environment can inherit rivalry. A generation can normalize what the previous generation merely tolerated. Yet Scripture refuses to imprison the human person within inherited history (cf. Ezek 18:1–23). Joseph received betrayal from his brothers but refused to make betrayal his identity (cf. Gen 50:15–21). Ruth entered an unfamiliar people and became part of a history of redemption far greater than she could see (cf. Ruth 1:16–17; 4:13–17). St. Josephine Bakhita's life reveals with extraordinary force that what has happened to a person does not have to become the final definition of that person. Thus one soul can become a place where an old pattern loses its future. A father who refuses to raise his children through the violence he himself endured may be performing a hidden work of redemption. A mother who teaches children to apologize may be breaking an inheritance of pride. A priest who embraces transparency may interrupt a culture of concealment. A religious who refuses competition may change the atmosphere of an entire community. A young person who chooses truth where compromise has become normal may become the first place where an inherited pattern of darkness is interrupted. This reveals a quiet mystery of grace: God can begin a new history through the obedience of one heart . Renewal does not necessarily announce itself through crowds, programmes, or visible achievements. It may begin with someone kneeling beside a dying parent and praying for forgiveness, entering Confession after years of avoidance, apologising in the privacy of a kitchen, returning money obtained dishonestly, refusing to falsify a document at work, or remaining faithful to a vocation when no one notices . Joseph's fidelity preserved a future generation during famine (cf. Gen 45:5–8); Samuel's obedience opened a new prophetic chapter in Israel (cf. 1 Sam 3:9–21); Mary’s fiat became part of the mystery through which the Word entered human history . In the same hidden way, one parent who refuses to transmit hatred, one spouse who chooses fidelity after betrayal, one priest who renews his fidelity, or one young person who breaks with dishonesty can prevent an old pattern from being handed onward . The soul can become a threshold of grace through which Christ reaches a family, a vocation, a parish, and perhaps people the person will never know (cf. 1 Cor 3:6–9; Jn 12:24). What begins invisibly in one obedient heart can, under Providence, bear fruit far beyond that heart.
The words, “corruption has reached the limit,” should therefore awaken neither despair nor fascination with darkness, but a profound urgency for truth. Scripture repeatedly reveals hidden disorder so that healing may finally begin. Nathan brought David into the light of truth (cf. 2 Sam 12:1–13); Christ addressed the wounds of the churches in Revelation because He desired repentance and renewed fidelity (cf. Rev 2–3). Even Calvary, where human violence seemed to reach its terrible culmination, became the place where mercy opened its deepest door (cf. Lk 23:33–43). The opposite of corruption is therefore not merely increased activity. It is transparency before Christ. The soul stops protecting its image and brings everything into His light: resentment, ambition, jealousy, attachment, fear, impurity, wounds, failures, dryness and hidden compromises (cf. Jn 3:19–21; CCC 2711). St. Mary of Egypt demonstrates how completely grace can reorder a life surrendered to God, while St. Hildegard of Bingen shows how fidelity to the Church can coexist with courageous confrontation of spiritual disorder. Authentic renewal begins when we stop asking only, “Who is corrupt?” and allow Christ to ask, “Where have you become opaque to Me?” A priest may rediscover reverence at the altar. A religious may recover the tenderness of a forgotten vocation. A husband and wife may return to forgiveness before resentment becomes permanent. A young person may return to Confession before temptation becomes identity. A parish may rediscover silence before the tabernacle. A family may place the Rosary back into its evenings. These seemingly small movements can become enormous before God because they restore the soul's receptivity. The first miracle of reform is not that everything around us changes; it is that something within us becomes capable of being changed again.
Perhaps, then, the deepest meaning of this Appeal is hidden in the phrase “has reached the limit.” There are moments when God permits the exhaustion of our human solutions so that we may discover the beginning of divine healing. David's exposed sin became the doorway to repentance (cf. 2 Sam 12:13); Peter's collapse became the place where love was purified and his mission renewed (cf. Jn 21:15–19); Lazarus entered the silence of death before Christ revealed Himself as the Resurrection and the Life (cf. Jn 11:1–44). The limit is therefore not necessarily where grace ends; sometimes it is where our resistance is finally exposed. What must never reach its limit is the soul's willingness to return. A hardened heart can become tender again. A silent conscience can awaken. A family pattern can end. A priest can begin again. A religious can recover first love. A wounded parish can rediscover Eucharistic reverence. Mary shows the opposite of obstinacy: a heart sufficiently empty of self-possession to receive what God had never previously revealed to her (cf. Lk 1:26–38). Before the Eucharistic Christ, we are invited into that same poverty of spirit. We do not come to prove that we are good; we come to allow Him to make us truthful. We do not come merely to ask Him to change the world; we allow Him to change the place from which we encounter the world. The soul becomes transparent, receptive, teachable, correctable and therefore alive. Perhaps the most piercing prayer of this Appeal is consequently very simple: “Lord, do not allow us to become so accustomed to Your presence that Your grace can no longer move us.” Let us remain capable of wonder before the Eucharist, capable of repentance in Confession, capable of tenderness toward the wounded, capable of accepting correction, capable of forgiving, capable of beginning again. For when Jesus passes through our lives, the greatest sign that grace is alive may be this: our hearts still move when He touches them.
Prayer
Our Adorable Jesus, enter the hidden places of our consciences and awaken what has become numb. Break every inherited pattern that resists Your grace. Restore our holy wonder, purify our intentions, soften our hearts, and make us transparent before You. May our families, vocations and communities become places where Your mercy begins anew. Amen.
Sr. Anna Ali of the Most Holy Eucharist, intercede for us.