Thought For
Today
Fr. John
Cullen
26/02/2017
Intercom
Magazine
All of us, ordinary and flawed, have at heart a seemingly
boundless longing for fulfillment. On this Day of Prayer for Temperance, we
consider Matt Talbot, who had only seven people at his funeral in 1925, but whom
hundreds of thousands came to see as a beacon of hope that reflects the
struggles addiction can impose on someone's life. He relied on a higher power
that affirmed and accepted him, without preconditions. He made an extraordinary
journey from the darkness of excessive addiction to wholeness and the light of
holiness. Amidst the anxieties and personal anguishes of his own pain-filled
days and nights, he shows us the answer to one of the seven questions that Jesus
asks in the Gospel today: 'Can any of you, for all his worrying, add one single
cubit to his span of life?'
Matt Talbot could identify with the words of
today's Psalm: 'In God is my safety and glory, trust him at all times, pour out
your hearts before him'. He imbibed the refreshing waters of grace and renewed
his life as a heroic witness of the power and presence of God at work within
him.
