JOHN E. writes:

Fr. Marcel Guarnizo, the Catholic priest who refused Communion to a lesbian and has been suspended from pastoral work, does well  to warn priests of what is likely to come for the faithful among them. It looks like it is taking heroic fortitude for this priest to stand firm and not violate his conscience as it relates to his simple duties as a priest. In his case, the heroism is not in performing something extraordinary in itself, as he is only performing the ordinary, and even mundane, functions of a priest in standing guard over the Blessed Sacrament. The times are such, however, that it is beginning to take extraordinary virtue in order to perform ordinary duties of life. The tragedy in this is that most of us are not made of the stuff of heroic virtue, yet our ordinary duties in life still remain, and we must still perform them well.

Or perhaps there is a better way of looking at it, and that is by recognizing the tremendous opportunities given to us in our day. On the one hand, it’s wrong that heroic virtue should be required for doing ordinary things, but on the other hand the work of the saints is being placed squarely in front of each one of us, and the choice is clearer than ever before, whether to serve the Lord with great devotion and fealty, or to cower, hide and abdicate to ultimate shame.

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