A graceless life

But you, my dearly beloved, be mindful of the words which have been spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who told you, that in the last time there should come mockers, walking according to their own desires in ungodlinesses. These are they, who separate themselves, sensual men, having not the Spirit. But you, my beloved, building yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto life everlasting.
 -- Jude 1:17-21

Without Thy grace.  We elected to live gracelessly, we trusted solely to our strength, were bound only by our own laws, surrendered to our own whims and followed our own instincts. On those foundations we built our new towers. We have lifted our voices and celebrated triumphs, we have marched, we have worked, we have boasted and saved and squandered.  And the outcome?  Precisely without thy grace – a graceless life a pitiless age, an age of inexorable fate, a time of horror and violence, of worthless life and senseless death.  We ought not to be surprised that such a graceless life has translated itself into the kind of manifestation we are now enduring.  And we who have been dragged down into the universal collapse – which perhaps we did not try to prevent by every means in our power – must in the midst of our destiny overcome that destiny, turning it into a cry for grace and mercy, for the healing waters of the Holy Spirit.  Humanity ought never again to over-rate its capabilities or delude itself as we have done.  Those who survive should take these lessons to heart and preach them with inspired zeal.  The graceless way of living is presumptuous and leads to disaster.  We are truly human when we live in unity with God.

Father Alfred Delp, S.J.

Father Delp (1945) was a German Jesuit priest condemned to death by the Nazis in Berlin, Germany.