Recently, a visiting priest at my church mentioned in his homily that half of the people in this country don’t have God in their life today, and I’m sure that many of us have family and friends that are part of that group.  And we may or may not know that if we turn our backs on God in this life, despite the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we could lose eternal life.  Without heeding the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we are prone to sin and sin again.  However, we are all God’s children, and He created us to know Him, to love Him, and serve Him in this life so that we could be happy with Him forever in heaven, and thankfully He never gives up on us. We can’t give up on our family and friends because we want to share Heaven with them.

Jesus died on the Cross, and paid the ransom to save everyone in every generation.  He did His part, now we are left to do our part.  What happens to those who refuse His mercy and turn away from Him?  Are they lost or is there still hope for them, even if we see that they are unwilling to change the direction of their lives right now?  Yes, there is great hope, and it is called reparation.

Now what is this gift called reparation to save our family and friends?   From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, reparation is defined as the act of “making amends for a wrong done or for an offense, especially for sin, which is an offense against God,” and our amends can be for our family and friends.  From our own experience, we could easily say that many souls are lost because there is no one making reparation for them.  Reparation really works!

Even the devil and his demons know the benefit of reparation for sinners.   “Confound it all … how do so many manage to escape me?  They were mine (and he rattled off their sins). … I work hard enough, yet they slip through my fingers …Someone must be suffering and repairing [making reparation] for them,” which were the words that Sr. Josepha Menendez heard a demon say while she was being tortured in hell to save souls at the invitation of Jesus, as described in her book, “The Way of Divine Love.”

Reparation for the “sins of others” can be accomplished in different ways, primarily through prayer, adoration and sacrifice.  We are not alone in our efforts, but we have heavenly weapons available to us: we have Jesus to help us; we have Mary, who has been given the power by God to defeat Satan, and be assured the enemy knows her power; we have the Communion of Saints to intercede for us.

Prayer:  We know that Jesus, Mary and the Saints hear every prayer, and they will act on our behalf.   We can say that the Mass is the greatest prayer offering we can make for our family members and friends, either praying for them while attending Mass or having a Mass said for them.  We gift them to the Father in the chalice during the Consecration of the Mass.  Novenas (including Mother Teresa’s Flying Novena) and many other types of prayers are beneficial.

St. Padre Pio held up a rosary, and said, “This is the weapon to defeat Satan.”  Our Lady’s message at Fatima in 1917 was to pray the rosary every day because she knew its power to change the world.  So we can place our family and friends in her care as we pray the rosary.

Adoration:  A consecrated host in a monstrance is displayed on the altar.  When we participate in Adoration, we worship in front of the true presence of Jesus.  He is looking at us and we are looking at Him, and our presence greatly pleases Him.  He will not be outdone in generosity, so it is a wonderful opportunity to ask His help in turning family members and friends away from the attractions of the world and toward Him for their salvation.

Sacrifice:  As Catholics, we were always guided to “offer it up,” meaning that whenever we suffered through ailments and trials we could do some good in the world by offering it to God.  Likewise, “offering it up” provides us a golden opportunity to use this approach to save the souls of family and friends, and it benefits our salvation as well. 

Fasting is another form of sacrifice.  It is a voluntary self-denial of usually food and/or drink as an expression of interior penance to atone for one’s sins or the sins of another.  Fasting involves an attitude of trust and dependence on God.  We trust that God will accept the intent of our fasting, and depend on Him to fill that which is being left empty.  We accept the emptying of self in order to be receptive of something else, which can be the healing grace of God poured over family and friends for their conversion.