FROM THE PARISH PRIEST
 

Only One Chance
by Fr. Romey Rosco

        Many great stories came out of World War II.  While some were horrifying, others were most inspiring.  One such story tells about an airplane crash in the South Pacific.  Four men on a mission ended up on a raft on that dark and vast expanse of water.

        They searched themselves to see who might have a flare, and they found one.  Then they searched for matches and they found....one match.

        Before they struck that single match to light the flare, they huddled together very closely to keep the wind out and said a prayer.  They knew that if the match blew out they wouldn’t have any hope in lighting that flare.  It was their only chance of being saved.

        You can imagine how hopeful they must have felt when they lit that match and were able to transfer its fire to the flare.  Eventually, that flare was sighted and they were rescued.  They had that one chance of being saved and they made it good.

        That’s what we have.  We have just one life on this earth, one life to get us to heaven.  So, we have to make it count now, as we live it.  Don’t let the winds of temptations and worldly thoughts and pleasures take it away from you, and don’t let despair or doubt cripple your effort to make this life good.

        We can help one another.  Together, we can face the world, encouraging one another and sharing God’s hope, truth and life, as we travel the sea of life.

        We have a mission, it’s true.  Our mission is to be saved!  It requires our cooperating with the Lord through prayer and effort.  Unlike some of our Protestant friends, we believe that we are not saved until our Lord judges us to be on Judgment Day.

        Until then, keep His saving light burning!

From The Weekly Bulletin, Vol. XXXIII No. 46, 5 November 2006
Sts. Peter & Paul Romanian Orthodox Church, Dearborn Heights MI

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