The Inner Battle and the Urgent Hour

Rom 7:18-25a, Psalm: 118, Lk 12:54-59

Memorial of Saint Anthony Mary Claret

My dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Each of us knows the experience of a divided heart. We desire what is good, yet we find ourselves doing the very thing we hate. Today, the Word of God, on this Memorial of the zealous missionary Saint Anthony Mary Claret, speaks directly to this human struggle, offering not condemnation, but a path to liberation and a call to decisive action.

Saint Paul gives voice to our common spiritual agony with stunning honesty: “I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self,” he confesses, “but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind.” This is the profound conflict between our redeemed spirit, which longs for God, and the lingering tendency to sin that St. Paul calls “the law of sin.” His cry is one we have all uttered in our own way: “Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body?” But Paul does not leave us in despair. He immediately answers his own question with a shout of victory: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” The solution is not found in our own willpower, but in the grace that comes through our Savior.

This interior deliverance, however, demands an exterior response. The Lord Jesus, in the Gospel, challenges the crowds—and us—for our spiritual complacency. He notes their skill in interpreting the weather: “When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately, ‘It is going to rain’… and when you see that the south wind is blowing, you say, ‘It is going to be hot.’” Yet, they fail to “interpret the present time.” They are experts in earthly signs but blind to the ultimate sign: the presence of the Messiah in their midst, calling them to repentance.

Jesus urges them to decisive action: “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?” He tells them to settle matters with their opponent on the way to the magistrate, lest they be handed over to the judge and thrown into prison. This “opponent” is often understood as our own conscience, or even the truth of the Gospel itself. The “way” is the time of our lives. The urgent call is to be reconciled with God now, before the final judgment. We must interpret the signs of God’s grace and the urgency of our own moral choices.

This is the perfect synthesis that Saint Anthony Mary Claret embodied. He was a man intensely aware of his own sinfulness and reliance on God’s grace, like Paul. Yet, he was also a man of fiery action, who saw the urgent need for evangelization. He famously said, “A son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a man on fire with love, who spreads its flames wherever he goes.” He didn’t get bogged down in his inner struggles; he allowed Christ’s deliverance to fuel a life of incredible missionary zeal, preaching, writing, and serving the poor, always aware that the time was short.

For us, the message is clear. We are not to be paralyzed by the “war within our members.” We are to cry out with Paul to Jesus Christ for deliverance. And having received that grace, we are to become spiritually astute. We must “interpret the present time”—see the opportunities God gives us each day to choose the good, to forgive, to pray, to serve. We must “settle the case” by running to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, making peace with God and our neighbor.

Let us ask for the intercession of Saint Anthony Mary Claret today. May he obtain for us the grace to acknowledge our inner poverty, to embrace the deliverance won by Christ, and to live with the urgent, loving zeal of those who know the time for salvation is now. Amen.