Life is a dangerous journey;  on it, we are not called to be “safe”; we are called to be faithful.

I am heartily sick of being told to “stay safe”. I want to make a vulgar response when I hear it. Safety did not prompt Mary to accept the Motherhood of the Divine; faith did. Being safe was not on St Edith Stein’s list when she went willingly to the holocaust of Auschwitz; love was. Staying safe was certainly not what inspired St Paul to carry the Word via prison cells and ship wrecks to the hearts of mankind; faithfulness to Love did. Throughout our Faith history courage – inspired and sustained – by love has been the driving force of the activities of the faithful.

Christ invites each of us to be faithful to Him and thereby find our safety in Him – in Him alone. Our “safety” is in trusting God, in trusting His plan for the salvation of my soul, and the salvation of the world. Being safe for a Christian is not so much about physical safety, but the safety of my soul and the peace of my heart. This safety and peace arises through faithfulness. Faithfulness that is minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. A faithfulness that is not dismayed (for long!) about the diabolical state of the world. Now is the time for me to be faithful.

Faithfulness is the dangerous journey. Faithfulness does not court fashion, it offends many, it deprives, and it can be lonely. But faithfulness is as sticky as Samwise Gamgee to Frodo, as bloody minded as Naomi is to Ruth, as single minded as William Wilberforce was to the liberation of slaves, and as dogged as St Catherine of Siena to restoring the papacy to Rome.

Faithfulness is remembered.  Faithfulness is immortalized; because our faithfulness is to an immortal God. My faithful actions – especially those made which deprive me of comfort – become immortalised. This is the gift, this is the treasure that I will store up in Heaven, that cannot be destroyed by moth or Covid or natural disaster or even war. I may not have my name recorded in Butler’s Lives of the Saints, but the impact of my decisions to be faithful will go out to all the world and reverberate throughout all time.

Our vocation – to single life, married or consecrated life gives us the particular vehicle in which to derive our avenue of faithfulness. Faithfulness is otherwise a nebulous term which sounds marvelous in theory, but cannot be concretely grasped in action – unless we take time to plot our particular course of action – for the day, for the year, for eternity.

I am baptised. I am married. I have children. I am a neighbour..

Each of these titles instructs me on how I can be faithful. I am baptised, so I am faithful to prayer and to growing in virtue (there is so much opportunity for a Choleric!). I am married so I cultivate faithfulness to the sacramental bonds of marriage by tending to the job of faithfully  loving my husband. I am a mum, and so I act on specific ways to raise my children in the Faith in order for them to become who God calls them to be. I am a neighbour, and so I find ways to be faithful in loving those God has sent me; to bring them closer to Christ and His love for them.

In recent times of turmoil and the sometimes erratic limitations on the practice of our faith, I found that working out a daily program of “being faithful” was and still is, so important to enkindle my hope. For me there are five activities that I need to keep me at even.

1. To take a long time of prayer (an hour) to study scripture, to praise, to pray the rosary
2. To fulfill (with joy) my duties as a wife and mum – solid housekeeping!
3. To study and to create – I am studying formally, but this also includes reading good books, painting, drawing, sanding, building, doodling, arranging flowers etc…
4. To exercise – a good long walk, a workout to build muscle.
5. To reach out to my “neighbours” – be they next door, a text, email or phone call away.

Each day these activities, which are suitable to my time of life and station in life, keep me from the weight of the crazy times that God has asked me to live in. These are my end times, and I want to be faithful. I want to be a saint.

~Sarah McDonald

Sarah is married to James and they are blessed with four children. Sarah gained a degree in Education, had a cerebral hemorrhage and returned to study Chinese Medicine and shiatsu therapy. By her account, she wasted her 20s gallivanting around the world before experiencing a conversion in Paris at the 1997 World Youth Day.

She and James have recently moved to the foothills of the Snowy Mountains where Sarah teaches grammar at the Augustine Academy Liberal Arts School.