Human history is full of stories of
people who have shown the
potential for good that exists in
every person. Every generation has
had its inspirational people who
have turned from a life of wrong
doing to a life of goodness and grace. Such a
change often comes from a personal encounter
with Christ Jesus.
Saul, we are told in the Acts of the Apostles, was
on the road to Damascus to continue his
persecution of the early Christian Church when he
encountered Christ Jesus. From a person who
attacked the message of the Gospel he became its
fearless preacher.
The Cross and the Switchblade tells the story of
Nicky Cruz, the New York teen gang member
whose life was dramatically transformed by an
encounter with Christ through David Wilkerson.
The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican tells the story
of Mgr Hugh O’Flaherty who managed to give
shelter to thousands of Jews during the German
occupation of Rome and who led
Colonel Herbert Kappler, Rome’s
Gestapo chief, to faith in Christ.
We are a people who are created
by God in his own image and
likeness. There is something of God
in each person. Sitting in an airport
coffee bar recently and surveying
the milling people below I thought,
what a wonderful tapestry of God
is created by the faces of these
people. Because we are created by
God, we are created for goodness and have an
immense potential for goodness and truth.
When in our daily lives we find ourselves despairing
the lack of goodness in our own lives and the lives
of people around us remember we have the
potential, and Christ Jesus, who we encounter so
often through the people with whom we share our
life, will enable that potential to grow and bear
fruit once we humbly give ourselves to him and
seek his grace and help.
We have the potential.
Fr Liam Slattery
Parish Priest at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church,
Tovey Road, Swindon, which serves the Highworth
Community |
