Dear Alice,<\/p>\n
Of course it pains me to here of your succumbing to temptation over the summer.\u00a0 But I am sure that it pains you even more, now that the Holy Spirit has brought you back to your senses.\u00a0 Above all, though, it pains Christ, who only wants you to live the most meaningful, fulfilling life possible, now and into eternity.\u00a0 When you sin, you spit in the face of his generosity.\u00a0 But never fear, my repentant niece!\u00a0 He came to call sinners, not the righteous, and he has already paid the price for your sin by suffering the unspeakable torments (physical and spiritual) of his glorious Passion.\u00a0 You have only to turn back to him, confess your sins, and receive his forgiveness.\u00a0 You may be encouraged by the remarkable example of today\u2019s saint.<\/p>\n
Afra lived in the Roman Empire (in what is today southern Germany) under the Emperor Diocletian.\u00a0 As I\u2019m sure you remember, Diocletian unleashed the most hideous and systematic persecution of the Church in Roman history.\u00a0 He wanted to do away with it completely.\u00a0 Afra was one of its victims.<\/p>\n
She had been a common prostitute before converting to Christianity, and this was well known to all the officials in town.\u00a0 When she was forced to come and sacrifice to the Roman gods (this was the test: Christians wouldn\u2019t do that, since they believed in only one God, so making the demand was the surest way to identify who was really a Christian), she refused, publicly acknowledging her faith in Christ to the Roman Governor, Gaius.\u00a0 But Gaius knew her background and began trying to undermine her faith.\u00a0 He told her that Christ could never accept such a sinner as she.\u00a0 She replied: \u201cOur Lord Jesus Christ hath said that he came down from heaven to save sinners. The gospels testify that an abandoned woman washed his feet with her tears, and obtained pardon, and that he never rejected the publicans, but permitted them to eat with him.\u201d\u00a0 He insisted, cajoling her to go back to an easy life and make some more money, threatening to have her whipped in front of her former customers, describing the tortures he would inflict on her, and returning again to the point that Christ would never have anything to do with a prostitute.\u00a0 She parried every thrust, finishing with: \u201cIt is true, I am unworthy to bear the name of a Christian; but Christ hath admitted me to be one.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, she was condemned, taken to a nearby island, and burned at the stake.\u00a0 Three other former prostitutes and fellow converts watched from afar, and then, with Afra\u2019s mother, brought the body to be buried in the family tomb.\u00a0 While they were still there, Gaius sent guards to apprehend them and force them all to sacrifice to the Roman non-gods.\u00a0 Each followed Afra\u2019s example of fidelity, so the guards filled the tomb with branches and logs and set it all afire with the four women locked inside.<\/p>\n
We never were worthy of the great gift Christ offers us, and after we have sinned, even less so.\u00a0 But the less worthy we are the more gloriously can Christ\u2019s mercy shine when we let his forgiveness truly transform our lives.\u00a0 As Afra put it during her trial, \u201cI was a great sinner before I knew God; but I will not add new crimes\u2026\u00a0 My Capitol [place of sacrifice] is Jesus Christ, whom I have ever before my eyes. I every day confess my sins; and because I am unworthy to offer him any sacrifice, I desire to sacrifice myself for his name, that this body in which I have sinned may be purified and sacrificed to him by torments.\u201d<\/p>\n
May your renewed love for God and for your neighbor give you the same joy and fortitude exhibited by St Afra, heroic woman of the Church.<\/p>\n
Your loving uncle,<\/p>\n
Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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