Life is worse without God.

Conversion always triggers a series of diverse reactions and feelings. In those who experience it, joy and fervor are combined with the clarity of seeing that “has chosen the better part”, light appears after a lifetime of darkness. This attitude of wonder often contrasts with the defeatist, gloomy attitude of many Catholics who are determined to see only the dark clouds hanging over the Church. 

On one occasion, a young convert was at a conference, surrounded by “lifelong Christians”They only complained about the problems surrounding the faith: priests had little pastoral zeal, society banished faith from the public sphere, there were no Christian policies... When asked how she saw “that view”, that young woman replied “Honestly, I don't think it's that bad. Because I come from outside and you have no idea how cold it is there.”His answer hit the nail on the head: outside, without God, it's colder.

One of the worst lies that the devil has successfully implanted in the minds of many Christians is that those who are far from God “outside the vineyard”, enjoy life more than we do, or even that they are happier here on Earth. It is the foolish mentality of those who exclaim upon a late return or discovery of God: “With all the good times he's had in life, now he's converted and going to Heaven, isn't he?”. But that's not the case. No. It's very cold outside. 

Life is worse without God. It is colder outside the vineyard, far from the Father. We fall into the devil's trap when we think that those outside “they are fortunate" o "have experienced the best of life”, instead of giving thanks for having been called “at the first hour”The laborers, who had never known the house of the Lord, suffered from the cold; the prodigal son, who had fled from it after the devil's false promise, suffered from cold and hunger. 

Because the weight of the day and the heat exist, of course, but it is a heat with meaning, a weight with a future. It is not the forced labor of a slave without hope. Otherwise, we Catholics would be like the older son, a “to love without meaning to”, a lukewarm, mediocre existence. And so we will not hear the cries of those outside, who ask us to go out in search of them, to be the agents of change in the world.