A different take on life’s challenges, that they offer an opportunity for continuing conversion. Many Christians see them as a things to be avoided. Pope Francis offers the witness of a few saints to bolster his premise. Let’s read:
17. At times, life presents great challenges. Through them, the Lord calls us anew to a conversion that can make his grace more evident in our lives, “in order that we may share his holiness” (Heb 12:10). At other times, we need only find a more perfect way of doing what we are already doing: “There are inspirations that tend solely to perfect in an extraordinary way the ordinary things we do in life”. [Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God, VIII, 11] When Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyên van Thuân was imprisoned, he refused to waste time waiting for the day he would be set free. Instead, he chose “to live the present moment, filling it to the brim with love”. He decided: “I will seize the occasions that present themselves every day; I will accomplish ordinary actions in an extraordinary way”. [Five Loaves and Two Fish, Pauline Books and Media, 2003, pp. 9, 13]
When Christians see their relationship to God as a finished product, they might even see obstacles as works of the darkness instead of those opportunities for deeper relationship. how would you readers make the distinction?
You can check the full document Gaudete et Exsultate on the Vatican website.
Catholic Sensibility 