There is a story about a boy who was born in a little town. He went to school and used to sit beside a girl. She was a sweet and innocent girl. He loved this girl. She was Catholic and liked to do good things for others, like works of charity and mercy. He used to accompany her when she went to do works of mercy and he did them with her.
When he was about to begin high school, his family moved away, to the city. Unfortunately, he exchanged his innocent friendship with this girl for friendship with boys that were not so innocent nor good at all. He started doing bad things. One day he saw an old woman who had a beautiful handbag and thought that she probably had money in it, so he decided to steal it. He approached the woman and in one swift movement pushed her away, snatched her purse, and ran away. When he arrived at the corner of the street, he turned around and saw that a beautiful young woman was helping the old woman. He saw something familiar about her and stopped in order to carefully look at her. He realized that she was his elementary school friend who used to sit beside him. That scene made him realize what he used to be and what he had become and he began crying and wishing to die.
This story represents the Gospel, the world and our soul. The girl is the Gospel that always advises us to do good things. The Gospel, like this sweet girl, makes us do good things to others, practicing works of mercy and charity. The problem is that when we keep the Gospel and it’s teaching far away from our life, as if the Gospel lives in a small town while we go to the city, we forget its teachings and we do not feel the force of its attraction. This is why we must constantly read the Gospel in order to feel the desire to follow Him, in order to love its teaching, in order to be attracted by its strength.
As a result of moving away from the Gospel the forces of the bad company who represent the world become stronger. We, little by little, not only stop doing good things but also, we start doing bad things. The further we are from the Gospel the stronger the world and its bad influences become in our soul.
The teaching is very simple, we must keep our soul close to the Gospel, which of course means to read it, to meditate on it, and also to practice it, meaning to live according to the Gospel. To live according to the Gospel is difficult because it implies renouncing ourselves in order to follow Him.
Why was this boy, who represents our soul, able to do good things while he was in elementary school? Because he followed the girl. Why did he follow the girl? Because he loved her. That is the secret, we must love the Gospel and its teachings. In order to love the Gospel, we must discover the beauty of it and we must fill our soul with the great ideals that are contained within it.
