It seems clear to me based on some of the things that I hear and read that we sometimes lose sight of who God really is. We even seem to go so far as to question God’s justice, motives, and judgment. I see this more and more with people expounding relativist views that try to take God’s laws to task because they feel they aren’t relevant today – as if God should be subject to our societal norms and whims. They have completely lost sight of whom they are talking about – the God of the universe – who existed before the universe as we know it was even created, who created everything we know, everyone we know, and will exist long after all of that has passed. This is who they presume to judge and to try to relegate to an abstract idea or philosophy rather than our Creator and God. C.S. Lewis had a rather salient quote for this in his work entitled “ The Problem of Pain” it went – “A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.” Such thinking is the height of our human arrogance, and yet we see it expounded on everything from social media debates to interpersonal discussions with those who claim to be “spiritual” but who want to have a “higher power” that is convenient to their way of thinking. They are idolaters, plain, and simple.

There is no debate – God is unchanging because He does not need to – if His ideas do not fit with societal norms, then it is the societal norms that are at odds with the natural order as defined by Him who created all and should be changed. It has been said many times; there is nothing new under the sun. Almost everything we encounter – every social issue, every political scandal, every moral deviation, has all been encountered before and been addressed by God’s law. It is we who are defective, not God. It is we who must change, not God. If you look around at our country today, it is rather evident that a mess has been created. We have social injustices, we have disease, we have rampant fears and anxieties, we have violence and death, we have arrogance that is frankly the root of most of it. We have become a society of profoundly arrogant, self-entitled, spoiled children that have made a mess of their homes and are now getting to the point of frustration where many rail against God as having not kept His word because we are encountering so many hardships. We now question God’s existence because He is not doing as we would like. We do all this after having pushed Him aside, relegated Him to the point of obsolescence and indifference, pushed Him from our schools, government, and the public eye in general because we are embarrassed by Him because He might offend someone else’s sensibilities (if only that were so, at least they would then be thinking of Him and learning something that could lead to salvation). Yet in all this, we have the audacity to question His very existence because we do not feel He is sufficiently present and working for us. No kidding – we kicked Him out. He is not going to be present where He is not wanted. He gave us free will, and we have exercised it poorly.

 

If we want Him back, we need to ask. Truly ask, with actual repentance and sincerity, not just words. We need to do this by showing it in how we live, how we make choices in our lives, how we live by His law. The seed of all this discontent, anguish, and sorrow was sown by the enemy, and we spread it about without looking back. We now need to turn. We need to cultivate that good seed and ensure it can grow to produce a harvest of fruitful actions, not the weeds of corrupted lifestyles, deviant practices, and idolatrous ways of living and thinking. If we do not, we will see no change, and there will definitely be a lot of those bundles of weeds to be thrown into the fires at the end of the age. We cannot simply point the finger at others and say they are responsible. If we are not actively engaged in refuting, educating, and bringing others to the proper knowledge of our Lord, we are just as guilty. To turn a situation around is difficult, but not impossible. It requires persistence, patience, and courage to move forward. We will need to work, to sweat, to sacrifice, and to ultimately demonstrate to make this happen – and that is our mission. Facebook posts will not suffice, mere words will not be adequate, we must live what we espouse. We must have the courage to then be truthful about what we believe, whether others agree with us or not. We must grow into this kind of life, just as the seed of God will grow within us and guide us as we progress in this effort. We are not alone; He is very much with us, but we must show that we want Him in our lives, and want Him to guide our world.

 

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Just as God sends water upon the earth to accomplish His purposes by making the land fruitful, and with the expectation that it will not come back to Him without having benefitted others, so are we to do the same. We are tasked with the job of being fruitful with our brothers and sisters and nurturing them with the word of God through our actions and words. If we do not do so, we are missing the point of our very existence, and the reason God sent us among them. We live on this earth for now, and while here we build our lives by creating homes and families and friends. But this is all secondary, we are here for a very different purpose than just these comforts and joys of our earthly existence. We are a people of faith and purpose, we have faith in our Lord, and our purpose is to bring others to knowledge and relationship with Him because it is only through Him that they can find the way to salvation. We must do this by being an example in how we live, in the faith we profess (even when confronted by those hostile to it), and the service we give to others for God’s purpose. By doing this, we, like the water help to bring this fertile ground to those we encounter.

When Jesus spoke to those gathered and preached to them to parable about the seed that fell on different types of soil, it was obvious what the desired soil was in order to produce fruit. It needed to be rich, and deep and watered, and without the seeds of evil influence to compete and possibly choke what it should bring forth. Each time we provide an example to others by the way we live our lives according to God’s word, we enrich this soil. We increase its depth with our consistency. We moisten and soften it with the words given to us by our Lord. We remove the evil seeds by showing others the joys of living with and for God, and not participating in errant behaviors. We richen it by the kindness we show, and the beauty of the love we display for others who may very well be surprised to encounter this from those who are not expecting anything in return. There are many who have never encountered this before, and who may very well want to know more of how to live like this, with joy, and compassion, and love for all. To feel loved by us, and by the One who loves each of us best, and who will never fail us. To exist in a house that encompasses their brothers and sisters who also believe and who genuinely care about them and will be there for them. This is the purpose for each of us, to provide this experience and framework so that others can be saved and live joyfully along with us. To expand our families to include those are our brothers and sisters that we simply have not had the joy of knowing yet. Each day we have the possibility of meeting and embracing someone new to love, and to care about. If we can live like this, we are truly producing an abundant harvest, and fulfilling what God intended from the beginning for each of our lives.

 

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Each person who believes in Jesus Christ and has accepted him for who He really is – the Son of God, has been reborn in the Spirit. Yes, we still have our fleshly bodies, but with a key difference, they are not our true selves any longer, they are merely flesh which will age and eventually die. Yet our true nature now is that of spirit, and most importantly spirit that is alive because of faith in Jesus, and active acceptance of Him as our savior. To that end, we need to reconsider who we are really, and begin to think and act accordingly. If our fleshly existence is now completely secondary, and it should be, then our focus should always be first and foremost on God, and life in the Spirit.

To truly live in the Spirit requires a significant mental shifting of gears for us, as our most fundamental priorities, will change radically. We will live with an eye that is focused more toward the eternal, and far less fixed on our temporal existence. We will no longer be consumed with the priorities that a purely physical existence would sensibly demand, and instead, we can look beyond that to things that are far beyond a self-centered focus. We can expand our thoughts to the caring and love of those around us without the worry of self-neglect because our entire perception of self has now been fundamentally altered. The physical self can be seen to with the minimum of necessities, and the energies we would have previously put toward the accumulation of resources for self can be applied instead to pursuing the well-being of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and in the spiritual growth of the self. A truly flourishing spiritual growth will by its very nature lead us toward greater alignment with Jesus’ teaching and the light burden that He asks each of us to carry. To love Him, and to love one another. To really align with this in our lives is actually tremendously freeing because so many of our self-imposed wants, perceived needs, and priorities will fade into obscurity, and with them all the stress and angst that was generated by their very presence in the forefront of our minds. Imagine now what it can be like to truly realize this kind of liberty of self, and to do so with a secure knowledge and acceptance of God being in complete control. With no more worry about end outcomes, no more concern about potential failure, no more sleeplessness, and angst about having to be solely responsible for what we perceive as success. If we really allow ourselves to think like this, and to allow Him to take control, we can experience this and more in our lives. We can know the lightness of a new burden that is Divine, and without all the self-imposed weight of our old burdens. To do this is to truly move closer to our God, and to begin to experience now what will be completely natural for us in life eternal. To make this change now, will show the childlike simplicity and reliance that He is truly looking for from each of us, and so profoundly demonstrates a trust that goes against the order of physical nature and a world that is dominated by the evil that thrives within that. To leave that behind, and to shed those burdens is not easy – we are drawn to the heavier and more burdened existence by our fallen nature, but we can strive toward something better. We can move toward God and leave behind the bonds that have held us in a heavily shackled existence. Each moment we spend in contemplation and prayer chips away at those old bonds and allows a bit more light to enter our hearts and minds. Each act of faith and trust in our God in even the smallest of ways breaks a link in our chains – something as simple as waking up each day and letting Him know that we accept His control and will trust in Him without reservation is a great way to start. The more we practice, the more natural this will become, and the more we will gain with each subsequent effort. Like anything else worthwhile, this will take time to accomplish, but that is what our lives are for. No matter where we are now in the sequence of our lives, it is never too late to restart, to refocus, and to move closer to Him.

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If we are truly joined to Jesus through strong faith, love, and relationship, then we are also taking part in His suffering and death, but also His resurrection. There is no separating this kind of intimacy, we must be willing to take on the suffering we are called to in this life, and eventually die, but if we are strong in our bond, then rise also to eternal life with Him. We are not intended for this world, despite everything we are constantly told and bombarded with in terms of life’s comforts and pleasures. These very same comforts and pleasures are actually chains that bond us more to this world than to allow us to move toward eternal life in the next. The more we partake of these secular pleasures and focus our efforts and attention on them, the less we are focused on doing what our Lord calls us to do in this life. Our attention is drawn away from humble service to Him, and to our brothers and sisters around us. We sometimes instead become addicted to this world and seek its pleasures to the point where we stop seeing the need of those around us. We can gravitate toward the things that are attractive to us and become blind to the marginalized, the forgotten, those with needs that can only be met through our intervention and help. It’s easy to do, we naturally gravitate toward the attractive, toward the easy, and toward things that bring us gratification. It’s a weakness that we all share and must guard against. If we can get past our inclination toward this short term gratification, and discover the joy and fulfillment of putting our efforts toward taking care of God’s children, and taking on this life’s sufferings so that we are giving them up to Jesus as an offering that bonds us closer to Him, we can become just as oriented toward this way of living. What is more, unlike the life focused at secular pleasures, we can have the assurance of that we are striving toward the grace of eternal life in the next.

The words in today’s Gospel seem very difficult to grasp, we are called place the very things that we often equate with our deepest love – our parents, spouses, and children, behind our relationship with God. Yet it is not as counterintuitive as it might first appear. We need to always keep in mind, who gave us these blessings to begin with. Who is the source of every good thing we have or love? We were not granted these things by accident, nor even by our own workings, we were given the most precious of these by God alone, and so it is fitting that in our gratitude we place Him before all else. That is not to say we are called to no longer love those around us, no, we are simply called to place things in the proper order and to always acknowledge their source, and to that end show proper deference and love. Even our very selves should be placed well back on the list. God gave us life, He made us who we are, and all that we are surrounded by, and have accumulated and achieved is due to His graciousness to each of us. Think about it for a minute, yes we can work hard for things, yes, we can strive toward achieving goals, but in the end, could we really do any of this without His help and intervention and granted grace? I’ve heard it said very often, that if we want to achieve good things in this life, we must “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” and work hard toward our goals, and to a point this is true. What we cannot forget, is that without God’s help, there are literally no bootstraps for us to pull ourselves up by, nor is there the resolve of will or the work ethic to drive us forward. Literally, the very breaths we take, each and every one of them is a gift that is provided by God. So, when we hear it said that we should place all of the things we treasure second to our Lord, can we really argue with that? In our true form, that which was intended from the beginning, we are to find our only satisfaction in doing His will. If we strive, in our current fallen nature, we can still latch hold of that grace-filled inclination, and bond closer to Christ, and to what we were truly intended for, and in this find the true happiness and peace that we all seek, and so few of us ever really find.

 

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Whom do we really have to fear in this life? Those who disagree with us, or denigrate us, or perhaps persecute us? Do we fear those who don’t like our beliefs, and perhaps label us so as to intimidate us, in an effort to silence us? Or perhaps those we see as being in authority? The answer is no one. Our God is the only one who is deserving of our fear, awe, and respect. To be clear, when we say that we fear the Lord, this is not a fear that equates to dread; this is the fear that simply comes from seeing awesome power and potential. It is a paternal fear like that which we probably experienced as young children observing our Fathers, who at the time seemed like mountains to us. It is a healthy fear that breeds respect and is appropriate for the God of the universe who loved us so much that He offered himself through his incarnation as Son to take the punishment that was rightfully ours, and thus restore us to a full relationship. It was the ultimate act of Fatherly love, that brought us back close to Him, and in the process vanquished death itself.

Our Father created a new reality that had not been seen since the time of Adam before sin entered the world, through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. He conquered the death that we all had reason to fear because it was a lasting death, and replaced it with the hope of eternal life with Him in our true home, heaven. He offered a chance to come to our true home, as repentant children, and spend eternity with our Father in a loving embrace that we all long for.

To get there is not easy, however; before that, we have much learning to do, and to prove ourselves as His children through our obedience and attention to His teaching. We do this through love of Him, and of our brothers and sisters. This is no small task. Like in most larger families, there are sometimes those who do not agree with the way we have been raised and taught, and who rebel, and we must reach out to them in love, and be patient with them to try to guide them home as well. This is not always initially appreciated, and sometimes leads to strife within our human family, and it is this which can sometimes lead us off track if we are not careful. We must remember our Father’s teaching, and stay steadfastly grounded in His word, no matter how much we are called on by others to do otherwise. As we do this, our example will not go unnoticed, and while we may not see the fruits of this at first, it will often produce in the long term. What we must never do is allow ourselves to become so distracted by fear of the opinion or words of others that we lose our way. We must have the courage to endure, absorb, and even embrace any insult, label, or word that others may use against us. Jesus Christ gave us this example of persistence and inner peace when He suffered for our sake. He did not lash out, He did not counter the words of others, He did not find it necessary to justify Himself before anyone but the Father, and neither should we. There is no need of it, and it is a distraction that leads us away from our true purpose – it is wasted energy and makes us vulnerable to the agenda of evil that will always try to wrest us from the touch of our Father. Never let your guard down, and never forget that true humility will keep us free from the weaknesses of our character that the evil one seeks to exploit. We are not without help; our Lord will always watch over us and provide us with His grace to help us in our time of weakness if we are but humble enough to ask.

This familial battle of earthly life is a daily struggle for us. We experience it in our homes, in our offices, in our friendships, and even sometimes within our Church community. We are in a constant struggle against human error colliding with the truth of God’s teachings, and the subsequent struggles that occur as part of that. Yet we are not without the hope of a final reward that will come after we have labored throughout our lives. We live in the struggle now, so that we may live forever in an embrace that is perfect, and a love that is without limit or end.

 

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This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, the commemoration of the gift of the Eucharist that our Lord gave to us, so that we might have life within us. We are unique as Catholics, in that we still adhere to the original teachings of the early Church in terms of the nature of the Eucharist, that while it may appear to be bread and wine, it is truly the body and blood of Jesus Christ, just as Jesus said. This grace of being able to receive so precious a gift, even to this day, is through the action of the Holy Spirit, and the apostolic succession through the imposition of hands, that remains unbroken from the time of Christ.

In our Gospel reading today, we hear the dialogue that our Lord had with his followers. At the time there were roughly 80 or so of them, and when they heard the words of our Lord proclaiming that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood, many could not accept this and fell away. So, ask yourself, what would it take to make so many followers of our Lord fall away after having been with Him for so long, and enduring so much hardship in the process? What must He have said that was so plainly oppositional to them so as to cause this? It seems clear from the reaction of so many of those there that if the Lord had spoken as if He intended for the Eucharist to be either a purely mystical representation or merely a symbolic representation of His flesh and blood, His words would not have caused so much consternation and falling away. When we read John’s Gospel message today, it is quite obvious that Jesus was speaking both plainly and with very specific intent as to the nature of what He was describing. He was not speaking of mere bread and wine having a blessed status, and certainly not of a mere symbol; He told his followers quite plainly what He would be providing, and what they must do to have life within them.

For us to really grasp this, we should understand the context of the times and the background so that we may comprehend the difficulty his followers would have had with His words. The area around Jerusalem at that time was surrounded by pagan peoples and influences, who as a common practice performed blood sacrifices of humans, and sometimes consumed it as part of these practices. For a Jew, such acts were unthinkable, because God’s law forbade the consumption of blood, and certainly did not practice any of these kinds of sacrifices. To hear our Lord talk of His own sacrifice, and then be told that they must consume Him to have life within them, was more than many could bear. The only ones that remained after that were the twelve that Jesus foreknew from the beginning, because despite the difficulty of what He was saying, their faith in Him was greater, and so they remained.

The thing is, if we think about this analytically, this is some of the most compelling evidence we have that indicates our Lord’s meaning, that the Eucharist truly is His body and blood. More than seventy people who were intimately familiar with our Lord’s style of teaching and with the intricacies of the Aramaic language were plainly convinced of His literal intent to the point that they could not handle the message and left. The notion of our Lord’s words not being plain, as some would suggest, and who believe it was intended to be less literal, pretty much dies with the reaction of so many of those followers if we follow this logically. Likewise, if we follow the evidence in the scriptures, we whose roots to those present during the early times remain unbroken, must believe that our Lord’s words were just what He intended; a command to those of us who wish to have eternal life to partake of His Eucharistic sacrifice with the full knowledge and acceptance of its true nature. Moreover, if we seek further evidence of the nature of the Eucharist, aside from the words of scripture, our Lord has blessed us with examples in the form of many Eucharistic miracles that have taken place over the centuries since He spoke. We have physical evidence of the consecrated hosts changing their substance from the host to their actual form, that of flesh and blood. In multiple recorded instances in the Church’s history, this miracle has occurred. The most recent instance was recorded in Buenos Aires several years ago; the transformed host was sent for independent scientific analysis without anyone knowing its origin by then Cardinal Jorge Borgoglio (now Pope Francis), and the results revealed it to be exactly what our Lord had told us – flesh and blood, specifically from the heart of a man who had been through extreme trauma, and was from the area of what is now modern day Israel. You see, our Lord understands human curiosity, and the need we have to look at examples like this to help us grasp something so wondrous, and to strengthen us in our belief –  He understands our nature and continues to care for us in this way.

With such a grounding in knowledge of what we receive, it is then also equally important for us to understand that in order for us to receive such a blessed gift, we must do so as worthily as we can. To receive the body and blood of our Lord in a state of mortal sin is a grave sin in and of itself and must not happen. If we look to the writings of Saint Paul, in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 27, we are told “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord^[1]”. You see, Saint Paul understood this link between the appearance of bread and wine and what was actually there – the body and blood of Christ, and so emphasized the importance of the state we are in when we receive it. We must therefore be the frequent recipients of God’s forgiveness and mercy through the Sacrament of Reconciliation in order to then receive the Eucharist in a worthy state. We must look carefully at ourselves each time, and perform an examination of conscience before we receive, and if necessary, wait until we have addressed whatever is preventing us to be in such a worthy state. Think about this for a second; can we really take in the body and blood of our Lord, the divine substance of His being, and place it within our body when it is stained with sin? To do so not only shows a fundamental disrespect, but directly contradicts what we know of God’s nature and His abhorrence of sin. It is easy, sometimes, to lose sight of the importance of how we receive the Eucharist, but we must be vigilant, and ensure we do so carefully. The gift we receive is too precious to allow otherwise.

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I don’t think that there is any denying it, Moses may have been specifically referring to the Jewish people, but I believe the term “stiff-necked” can be applied to humanity in general. We do not seem to learn from our history, or even the life lessons we experience, we must fail over and over – this is, I believe, just one of the many faults that come from the fall, and we continue to struggle with this. Our Lord has indeed demonstrated His love, patience, kindness, and indeed fidelity – even going so far as to offer His only Son as our replacement for the condemnation and punishment we deserve. His love for us is truly without limits.

His ask of us in return for such great love and faithfulness is that we love Him, and one another, as we are all created in His image. Yet even in this, we fail so frequently and repeatedly. Our inclination is to show our kindness and love to only who we know and understand, outside of that, we gravitate toward suspicion, hatred, and even cruelty. Those that we haven’t yet become familiar with are treated firstly with suspicion and reserve, rather than attempts at understanding and compassion. We justify these initial actions by telling ourselves that through experience we have learned it is better to be guarded until we know others a bit better, and to a point this is true, but we must not let this hinder what we are called by God to do. He knows all of His creations and knows that sometimes our trust will be unfavorably repaid, yet we are still called to extend the offer of love, just as He did. If our Lord accepted the risk and was indeed initially poorly repaid for His overture, why would we not be called to follow His example in this? His call tells us to greet one another with a Holy Kiss, and with agreeable spirit. That is not to say we are called to agree with all that others do, it means that we are called to act agreeably, including providing correction in what we know to be true through God’s word, and to introduce others who are not familiar with it to the Gospel message. This introduction comes from our actions and words, and from our commitment to His message of love and peace to all of humanity, even (and perhaps especially) when it is not so easy to see the good that is there in those to whom we are trying to spread this word to. We must try to ignore our own vision, which shows only the external, and instead attempt to look with God’s eyes at all we meet. To stop before we simply write someone off with our usual classifications that we box others into, and to ask ourselves what it perhaps took to get that person to the place they are currently in and whether we might react much differently in such circumstances. This is still a limited effort, because only God can truly know the mind and heart of others, and what shaped them, but we can at least strive for some understanding, and we can pray for the grace of discernment through the Holy Spirit to help us to navigate these encounters. There is no one else to do this, we alone as followers of Christ are in the unique position to offer His message of hope, compassion, and salvation. We alone are called to this, it is our responsibility. If we are to one day enter through the narrow gate, we must first open our own gate wide to others through trust, love, and compassion, no matter how we are then responded to, because this does not really matter – we cannot expect rewards from others for those efforts. If we do, then we lose out on the true reward that can only come from God himself when He calls us to Him and looks at our lives, and the difference we made to His other children – whether it was good, bad, or none at all. This is what we will be judged on.

 

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As we celebrate Pentecost Sunday today, it is hardly surprising that the readings reflect a focus on the reception of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and of receiving that spirit to dwell within us. There are many gifts that come from the Holy Spirit. If we are open to their reception and provide fertile ground for them to grow within us, there is incredible grace that can come from them. We can be called to many different vocations. Perhaps we are called to be parents, or to heal, or to teach, or to protect, or to preach, or to simply and lovingly serve God through our everyday acts that reflect a reverence for Him, and a love for our fellow man who are all His creations.

Whatever our gifts are that we receive, and however we put them to use to lovingly serve, it all starts with being open to the reception of the Holy Spirit, and to provide a dwelling place that is kept in order for it to reside within each of us. We then need to be open to the Spirit’s work and be willing to be humbly led wherever it will take us. This is not always easy; our visions for our future and our earthly made plans do not always align with God’s plan for each of us. We need to live and act with humility and accept the fact that we will not always understand His plans, but live them out, nonetheless. To do this requires the graces that can only come from the reception of the Sacraments and the actions of the Holy Spirit itself. If this same Spirit was able to take twelve, often quarreling, rugged individualists who had been living in fear and without a true understanding of what God’s plan was for them, and transform them into a unified group, with an undisputed leader, and have them go boldly forth to preach, teach, love, and ultimately die for our Lord, imagine what is possible for each of us if we but accept this gift. I am not necessarily saying we are all going to turn into rugged evangelists overnight or see the kind of personality shift that the twelve experienced. That has been done, and we have the fruits of that with us to this day in our priests and bishops as successors to the original twelve through apostolic succession. What we can definitely experience is the change in attitude and perception of how we make our life choices that comes only through the indwelling of that Spirit of God. We can proclaim our beliefs, we can demonstrate love for our fellow man through everyday acts of kindness and service, we can show to those who do not yet believe what it means to have this intimacy of the Spirit with our creator, and what is then possible for each of us.

In our world, we will have trouble. Jesus himself told us this, and it is in part why He left the Holy Spirit with us so that we would not be alone. To prepare to meet each challenge we must prepare ourselves through the strengthening that is only possible through God’s spirit. We hear each day of injustices that are perpetrated, of hatred and violence that take place throughout our world, and we are left with a choice. We can do nothing, and allow this to continue, or we can react to try to establish positive change. Our inaction will speak as loudly as our actions at the time of judgement, and in the interim, the anguish and the prayers of those suffering will be heard by our Lord. How can we expect God’s blessings to be placed on us as a people if we allow others to continue to suffer? We must speak out to those in authority, we must protest when necessary, we defend the truth of our beliefs so that others may understand, and we must not simply turn away from things that are afflicting our fellow man because we do not want to take on the burden of the troubles that others are experiencing. Action is required, not just social media posts expressing our disapproval or outrage. We cannot love if we ignore. It is the same whether we neglect the feelings of a loved one, avert our eyes when we see someone in need, or choose to ignore an injustice because it is inconvenient, or we are frightened. We must stand together if we are to ever move closer to the world that we who are the body of Christ are called to build. It may seem overwhelming, but we are not without help. God will never leave us alone in these circumstances if we allow Him to dwell within us and guide us, give us His words, bolster us with His courage, and especially show us how to love perfectly. If we can live within those gifts, the rest will come naturally.

 

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One of the questions that often comes up among people of faith, is what can I do to show God that I love Him and deepen my relationship with him? This question is asked with the best intent, and with a genuineness that is very moving. In our readings today, the answer is revealed to us. We can suffer with and for Him, and through adversity, glorify Him.

This can be a hard path to follow. We are not a society that cares for adversity, rather the opposite, all the popular messaging we hear is about good times and taking our ease. Yet this is not what we were created for. We were created to serve God, that is our purpose, and part of that servitude is to glorify Him with our whole beings. This is not to say that we are only meant to continually suffer in order to do so, but it does mean that we do not run away from that either. One of the things that Jesus told us very specifically, was that in this life, we will have trouble. He knew and experienced this and did not falter or move away from His path. Neither should we. Instead we can embrace our troubles in such a way that we can offer them up to God for His glorification through the way we carry our burden. We can be an example to His other children through the crosses that we bear, and the way we endure what we are dealt in this life. Sometimes these are things can come in the form of things we have no control over, such as illness or unforeseen circumstances, other times it can come from a personal choice that we make, but in all these things, we can offer our suffering up to God for His glorification.

To be a true believer in Christ means by definition that we will encounter many adversities for our belief because our Lord’s message is not one that the worldly wish to hear. When we hold fast to this message, we will be inevitably scoffed at, and at times perhaps insulted or even persecuted. In this day of modern society turning radically to a secularist mentality, and actively persecuting those who believe in Christ’s teachings, the opportunity to give glory to God in this way is definitely here. When Jesus tried to proclaim His message, He was mocked and abused by those in authority, and those under them. How can we as His followers not follow the same path? He has given us the message, it is ours to proclaim in how we live, in how we answer the questions of others about our own positions on controversial issues, and in how we hold fast even when all others are against us and ridicule us for our belief. It is these times that we hold fast to our Lord, we pray for the strength and the fortitude to endure, and we remember all that He suffered so that we would know the truth, and be redeemed in the eyes of God and thus be able to look forward to eternal life with our God.

To be sure, there will be times when we stumble, He knows this, but our God is not the god of remonstration or persecution for our faults, rather He is the God of forgiveness, compassion, and love. What He wants is for us to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and try to do better when we stumble. He is very much the Father who cares for His children no matter what they do. He will admonish us at times and guide us, He is, after all, a father, but this is done out of love, not spitefulness. His goal is for us to develop into the beings that can enter the gates of heaven and be with Him eternally because we have loved Him in this life and pursued Him. We have demonstrated that our love for Him is greater than all the adversity we encounter, all the sufferings we have endured, and has lasted until the end of our days. We can then return home, and be with Him, and welcomed by Him as only can happen when a proud Father is waiting for us with open arms.

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In our lives, we can each find the grace we need to survive because we are not left without an advocate during our time here on earth. Jesus, as He told His apostles, has left us with the gift of the Holy Spirit, the advocate that was promised when our Lord ascended to heaven. The Holy Spirit is also sometimes referred to as the Spirit of Truth because through the Holy Spirit we encounter and learn the truth, even when it is not always so easy to otherwise discern it in this life. The world truly does not want the truth, it is uncomfortable and inconvenient to so many of the earthly mindsets and agendas that are so prevalent today. Just before our Lord’s crucifixion, Pilate asked Him “What is truth?”, and in doing so painted for each of us a rather vivid illustration of the problems we still have so much in evidence today. There is overall both a lack of want when it comes to truth and a lack of even knowing where to obtain it if it were desired. The secular world often both despises, and fears the truth because their lifestyles, choices, agendas, and policies cannot bear the illumination that the truth provides. Their choices cannot withstand the scrutiny of actual truth without being shown for the falsehoods that they often are. When the light of truth calls into question the choices that are so often made in the name of tolerance, modern thinking, self-empowerment, the right to choose, etc. there is an immediate outcry and rebellion. The trouble is, that outcry and rebellion is not against those things that are shown to be falsehoods, but instead against the truth itself. Those who wish to continue with their own choices rather than having the humility, and grace, to learn from what the light of truth reveals to them are becoming more and more prevalent. That’s a bit scary, but not un-anticipated, as our Lord told us that these things would all come to pass.

The challenge is that each of us as believers in Christ’s message is called to conduct ourselves radically differently. We are not only called to believe in Christ’s teachings but to proclaim them boldly to those who all too often do not want to hear them. As we heard in our second reading, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is God’s will than for doing evil. We are to conduct ourselves in such a way as to keep our consciences clear, and to provide a model for others. We must conduct ourselves beyond reproach, so that those who try to defame us, are themselves put to shame. We are called to suffer, just as Christ suffered, and to bear this gladly as a way to bond ourselves even closer to Him through this suffering. To proclaim His teachings to those who need to hear them most, and to withstand their reactions, and to persevere so that they may also come to an understanding of Jesus’ message. It is only through this kind of patient example and suffering that we can truly strive toward demonstrating love for Jesus Christ. We must each day, die to self, and instead, live for Christ. In doing this, we fulfill the two greatest of God’s commandments – to love Him, and to love one another.

 

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