"675. It's true that he was a sinner. But don't pass so final a judgment. Have pity in your heart and don't forget that he may yet be an Augustine, while you remain just another mediocrity."
I wonder if it is good to use the ‘spur’ of ‘mediocrity’. While the thought is true, I would be happy to be one of the Lord’s mediocrities.
Still, it is a good line. Certainly we can rejoice in the hope that great sinners often are made into great saints.
I have hopes for a jailed sexual offender and crack-head. Only hopes, but when he is NOT on an addictive tear he is very clear and sincere in his appeals to heaven. Now that he is, I hope, locked away from drugs for more than 10 years, maybe God will cultivate some real virtue in him.
Pray for Joe, please. I Baptized him some 20 years ago. I think his conversion was real, but his subsequent fall was dreadful.