Well Said: Opposition from the Good

From today's reading in In Conversation With God. I myself tend to forget this over and over, becoming quite indignant. That's why this is a good reminder for me. I don't have to like it, but I shouldn't be surprised.

It is difficult to understand calumny or persecution -- either open or veiled -- in an era in which one hears so much about tolerance, understanding, fellowship and peace. But the attacks are more difficult to understand when they come from good men, when Christian persecutes, no matter how, another Christian, or a brother his brother. Our Lord prepared his own for the inevitable times when those who would defame, calumniate, or undermine their apostolic work would not be pagans or enemies of Christ, but brothers in the Faith who would think that with these actions they would be doing a service to God. This opposition from the good, an expression that the founder of Opus Dei coined to describe a phenomenon that he experienced so painfully in his own life, is a trial that God sometimes permits. It is particularly painful for the Christian to whom it happens. [...]

In any case, the position of the Christian who wants above all to be faithful to Christ has to be one where he can pardon, make amends and act with rectitude of intention, all the time looking towards Christ.

Francis Fernandez, In Conversation With God, vol. 4