We were watching one of the live games of the recently concluded 2026 Soccer World Cup when I asked someone in the room which team he was cheering for. He said he did not support any of the teams and that he was just there to watch a good game. He was completely neutral.
I nodded in tacit approval. We can be neutral about many things in life, such as sports, political issues, economics, and foreign policy. It is perfectly acceptable to not take sides in these things.
But there is one thing in which we cannot be neutral—our spiritual life. We cannot be neutral or disengaged when it comes to sharing the life of God in His kingdom.
Jesus assures us that we cannot sit on the fence in the spiritual life, when He said, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters” (Mt. 12:30). We must take a side and prove our choices by our actions. It is not enough for us to belong to Him in His kingdom.
We are either united to Jesus in His kingdom and laboring for Him and with Him to bring souls into heaven, or we are separated from Him and driving souls away from Him. There is no middle ground or third option.
In His parables about the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13:24-43, Jesus speaks of how He is busy sowing His good seed in us: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.” He is always placing in us the seed of His word of truth, grace, love, mercy, and consolation.
Jesus also speaks of an enemy, the devil, who is sowing poisonous weeds in us and throughout the world: “The weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil.” The devil cannot stop the good seed planted by Jesus, but he can sow evil in the forms of lies, false accusations, condemnation, and discouragement.
Jesus and the devil are always active in our lives, and they are both seeking followers and collaborators. Jesus is lovingly inviting us to cooperate with His mission to spread His kingdom. The devil, too, is tempting and luring us to join him in spreading evil, lies, and death.
So, we must ask ourselves this question: Who am I cooperating with in the choices that I make? Am I cooperating with Jesus or with the devil? The answer to this question will determine our eternal destiny:
The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will collect out of His kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
How can we collaborate with Jesus in His kingdom and grow in virtue in the midst of so much evil? How can we spread goodness and resist the devil and those who cooperate with him?
There are five sure ways that we can be channels of Jesus’ grace in our world today.
1. Repent
First, we must constantly repent of our sins. In Jesus, we encounter the infinite mercy of God who is “good and forgiving…a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and fidelity” (Ps. 86). Our inner freedom is diminished when we stop repenting of our sins. In so doing, we prevent ourselves from receiving God’s forgiveness.
Anytime that we attend the Sacrament of Confession, we allow Jesus to uproot the many weeds that the enemy has planted in us. He also gives us light to differentiate His own life-giving seeds from the poisonous weeds of the enemy. Along with this discerning sight, we gain strength to resist the enemy and his actions in our lives. This is why we must never get tired of repenting and beginning again, each time with greater trust in God after our failure.
2. Pray in the Spirit
Secondly, if we are to spread God’s goodness, then we must pray in the Spirit. Jesus desires us to pray and live like Him so much that He would even give us His own Spirit: “The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings.”
What does this mean? Praying in the power of the Spirit means that we pray out of love for God. We don’t use the excuses that we don’t have time for prayer, that we don’t feel like praying, or that we do not get anything out of praying. We pray because we are loved and because we want to love God more. Jesus cannot use us in a powerful way when we are not praying in His Spirit and experiencing the power of His grace and truth in prayer.
3. Do the Will of God
Thirdly, we must be resolved to do the will of God all the time. The Spirit also helps us to seek and find the will of God in all things and to fulfill that will: “The Spirit intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will” (see Rom. 8:26-27).
We have this intimacy with Jesus as we do His Father’s will, “For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Mt. 12:50). The closer our union with Jesus, the more that He can use us in His kingdom and empower us to resist the enemy.
4. Practice Vigilance
Fourthly, we must practice vigilance. The enemy in Jesus’ parable succeeded in planting his weeds because of a lack of vigilance: “While everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.”
We must be vigilant about the things that we watch, hear, read, think, remember, imagine, feel, desire, and do if we are going to cooperate with Jesus and resist the enemy. We must also examine our consciences well in the light of divine truth and love. How can we cooperate with Jesus when we are completely passive with what we consume through our senses? Or when we fail to notice how it affects our choices?
This is why Jesus instructed His disciples to “watch and pray” during His agony in the garden (Mt. 26:41). They did not obey Him, and so they did not dare to face His captors; they abandoned Him. We too abandon Jesus when we are not vigilant in our spiritual lives.
5. Consecrate Ourselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary
Lastly, we must consecrate ourselves to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary pronounced her fiat to God through the Angel Gabriel, completely committing herself to Jesus and to His saving mission, no matter the cost: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk. 1:38).
Mary gave herself so completely to God that He would use her to bring to this world the God-Man, Jesus Christ. She is a model and help for us who struggle to give ourselves to Jesus. She will share with us her own loving trust in God so that we can overcome our fears of committing to Him and of carrying out all that He wants us to do.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in this world we will always have our struggles with evil in ourselves, our families, communities, Church, and world. Some people lose their faith because of the evils in our world, without realizing that they also bear the seeds of evil within them. Our vocation is to mature in goodness and spread that goodness in the midst of evils. This is possible only because Jesus, the gracious sower, is forever sowing His good seeds in our lives. He wants us to collaborate in His mission to build His kingdom.
This same Jesus comes to us in each Eucharist to unite Himself with us and to place His life-giving seeds in us. He is always active. The devil is also active, always planting his deadly seeds. Why in the world then would we be neutral and inactive? Belonging to Jesus in His kingdom, we just cannot remain passive and disengaged.
Whatever the past has been, let us make a good decision today to be with Christ and to gather precious souls with Him. This decision will determine our eternal destiny.
Glory to Jesus!!! Honor to Mary!!!
Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash
