“In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.”  Strong words of encouragement and challenge from St Paul, and an opportunity for us to take stock of our priorities.  Do I look at my life from the perspective of faith or from the perspective of world?  Do I keep in mind that my time on this earth is not very long at all in the grand scheme of things, but that my soul will live forever.  Which do I fear more: sin or discomfort?  We’re people of hope.  Christ has won the victory, so we don’t have to be afraid in the face of the certainty of the pain that we will all experience in various ways and at various times in life.  We don’t even have to be afraid of death.  The only thing we have to be afraid of is sin.  For us, the greatest evil, really the only evil that matters, is whatever would prevent us from gaining access to the salvation Christ won for us: whatever there is in our heart would block off God’s ability to save us with his mercy: namely sin.  Those things that can destroy the body, those people that can threaten the body: disease, violence, enemies of our country or our faith: we might have a very real and very powerful human fear about those things, but in the final analysis: we can laugh in their face.  But things that can destroy or damage the soul: those should terrify us.  We should have a hatred for sin, a fear of sin.  If we see sin coming, we should sprint the other direction.  We should actually struggle against sin even to the point of shedding our blood, no matter what it takes.  It’s that serious, because it threatens our eternal destiny.  

St. Francis of Assisi famously jumped into a thorn-bush to distract himself from a temptation against purity.  Now I’m not suggesting that you all go outside and jump in the hedges, but it’s a good example.  He wasn’t crazy to do that.  His priorities weren’t out of whack.  There’s only one thing that can stop God’s salvation from getting to us: that’s us refusing delivery.  The great news is that God’s mercy is always there for us.  He never abandons us, and he’s always waiting for us to turn to him for grace and forgiveness.  And this should inspire us.  Pursuing virtue is exciting.  It’s actually exciting.  Sin is boring and repetitive.  Holiness is interesting and unique.  And so we should have a restlessness about our own pursuit of holiness, a stirring motivation to gain virtue, to purify ourselves from our vices, to grow in holiness, a fire.   The Lord wants the fire of his love to set alight our hearts, to light them up completely.  And he wants the fire to spread.  He wants people to notice something different about us.  No one who meets us should leave the same.  Our love of Christ, our knowledge of his mercy and our salvation should be a fire in our hearts, a fire that shines through in all our personal interactions.  The Holy Spirit will work through us; he will do all the work.  Sometimes it only takes a spark to ignite a great bonfire.  And we can be instruments of God setting the world ablaze with his love, but we have to do our part.  And our part is to do good, to avoid evil, to hate sin, and to pursue virtue and holiness in our lives.  Never to forget what’s really important.  To struggle against sin, even to the point of the shedding of blood.  And to trust.  To trust that the Lord truly loves us, knows what’s best for us, and desires salvation for us.  That he will protect us and shower us with his mercy here on earth and lead us to our destiny of eternal life with him in heaven.