Ordinary Time 14
July 6, 2025
The Souls We’re
Responsible For
Maria Simma is a recent German mystic (died in 2004) who
allegedly had visions of some souls in Purgatory. One time she was in bed,
waiting to fall asleep, when she saw a vision of a soul walking into her room.
By this time she had been having these mystical apparitions regularly, so it
did not bother her – rather, she simply asked, “Who are you?”
He replied, “Do you not remember me? We met one time on a
train. I have returned to thank you.”
She looked closely at his face and all of a sudden
remembered. Decades earlier, she had been riding the train, praying her Rosary,
when this man sat down across from her. Noticing the Rosary, the man began to
make fun of her. “Who believes in that stuff any more? The Rosary – just
hogwash! Don’t waste your time!” She defended her faith as best as she could,
but he was adamant that it was stupid to believe in God. Finally, the man
reached his station, and as he left, Maria whispered a small prayer: “Lord,
don’t let that man be lost for eternity.”
The soul of that man said to her, in that apparition many
years later, “That prayer you prayed for me was the only thing that kept me
from Hell. So I came to thank you.” The power of prayer – and the
responsibility we can have over another person’s soul!
What a blessing that the Lord uses us to save souls! Jesus
does not need to use 72 disciples to prepare His way; neither does He need to
use you and me. He could save souls and give grace directly, by Himself. But He
chooses to allow us to help Him save souls because God receives more
glory using weak, frail instruments like us. Back in the Medieval days, a
King showed how glorious he was by how many people were in his court. King
Henry of England had about 700 people in his court; the Palace of Versailles in
France housed 10,000 servants at one time. It belongs to the glory of the King
to have many servants surrounding him – so it belongs to the glory of God to
share His work of saving souls with each and every baptized Christian.
And it is not an exaggeration to say that eternity hangs
in the balance. Of all the things we do in this world, the only thing that will
remain in eternity are souls. Winning championships, building skyscrapers,
making millions – all of this will be gone in a thousand years. But bringing a
soul to Heaven will be a triumph that never disappears for eternity. Eternal souls
are literally depending upon our faithfulness to Jesus Christ.
The first way to cooperate with Christ in saving souls is
through our vocation. The primary souls for us to impact are our spouse
and kids and family. We have to be intentional about it – seeing our vocation,
whether to marriage or the single life or priesthood and religious life – as primarily
about forming souls for Heaven. You may be familiar with the life of St.
Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born saint. At first, her life was easy
– she was married to a wealthy merchant, a happy New York socialite. But soon
tragedy struck – her brother-in-law died, and she had to adopt his six kids,
along with her own five children. Then her husband died and they were thrown
into poverty. Through the influence of friends, she converted to Catholicism –
and her parents and siblings refused to speak to her, because of the
anti-Catholicism rife in America at the time. To add to this tragedy, two of
her daughters died of illness.
In all of this, her son William began to rebel in his
teen years. He questioned his faith, wondering how a good God could allow them
to go through such suffering. He was in danger of losing his faith entirely,
but his saintly mother spent many long hours patiently discussing the faith and
praying with him. Still conflicted, William joined the Navy, and his mother
kept writing to him to encourage him in faith – up to three letters per week,
many of which went unanswered. But after years of prayer and years of
encouraging letters, William again returned to his faith with great devotion –
much to his mother’s delight – and William had one daughter become a nun and a
son become an Archbishop. The faith of his mother helped William Seton return
to his own faith and become a fervent disciple! We, too, are called first and
foremost through our vocation to help our spouse, kids, grandkids, and family
members to Heaven.
We also cooperate through evangelization. St.
Francis Xavier was a missionary in India and the Philippines, and he wrote back
to his friends in Europe, “There is now in these parts a very large number of
persons who have only one reason for not becoming Christian, and that is that
there is no one to make them Christians.” He found fields ripe for the harvest
– and my goodness, we have that here too! I have never seen such an absolute
openness to Christ than I see right now. We have over 10 people who are
interested in exploring converting to Catholicism this coming Fall, with more
coming – if you invite. Look around in your school, your work, your
neighborhood to see if there’s someone who’s looking for more out of life…and
invite them to come to church with you. See what doors the Holy Spirit will
open!
Finally, we cooperate with Christ through intercession.
Our Lady at Fatima said, “Pray a great deal and make sacrifices for sinners,
for many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices
for them.” We pray for all sorts of material blessings for our family and
friends, but why not pray for their conversion and sanctification? You may be
familiar with St. Augustine, who was quite a wayward youth – he was a thief,
got involved in a cult, had a child out of wedlock. His mother St. Monica was
always hounding him to go to Church and get right with the Lord, but Augustine
couldn’t stand her pious nagging. So one day Monica visited the holy bishop St.
Ambrose, who told her, “Talk less to Augustine about the Lord, and talk more to
the Lord about Augustine.” In other words, stop nagging and start praying! She
did, and soon thereafter Augustine was converted. Sometimes I’ll be driving
down the road and see someone walking on the sidewalk, and I will feel the Holy
Spirit say, “This person needs a prayer.” So I’ll bless them and offer them to
God – who knows what good that will do!
But in all this, we must never forget that we
don’t save a single soul. St. Paul was clear when he said, “I planted, another
watered, but God gave the growth.” It is only grace that brings a soul closer
to Christ, not our efforts alone. This is why Jesus tells these 72 disciples,
upon returning, not to rejoice in the good works they did (works so amazing
like healing the sick and casting out demons), but rather rejoice only that God
loves them and that they are sanctified by their labors. Even St. Paul says
that the only thing we should boast in is Jesus Christ – it is His work,
already accomplished on the Cross, that saves souls. We are only messengers of
the King, beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.
But we find, though, that when we cooperate with his
grace in saving souls – through our vocation, through evangelization, through
intercession – we become holy. I had a sixth-grade student at my school
ask me last year, “Fr. Joseph, how do I become a saint? What must I do?” We
spoke about prayer and virtue, avoiding temptation and practicing acts of
kindness and sacrifice – but I came away from that conversation thinking, “In
helping him become a saint, I have a deeper desire to become a saint!”
So in helping others find Christ, we find Christ more.
The mission of Jesus Christ on this earth is literally
the most daring, important mission in history – that of saving souls for
eternal life. He does not possess this mission alone, for we belong to Christ’s
Mystical Body, the Church – which means that all of us must also seek to save
souls through our vocation, evangelization, and intercession. Only in Heaven
will we meet those souls we have brought there, through our faithfulness!
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