Carrying the Dying and the Rising of Jesus in our Bodies

In today's first reading, 2 Cor 4: 7-15, St. Paul reminds the Corinthians, and us, that we "are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. for we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us." But so is the Spirit, the spirit of faith. We know "that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and place us...in his presence."

Death is all around us via the covid-19 virus and we are warned that this situation will only get worse! Sadly some people still believe our president who, in the beginning of this outbreak, named it a "hoax."  The majority of people, however, have come to realize that the information about the virus has to be taken seriously and that, by no means, is the coronavirus a joke. Thousands of people, all over the world, have died from this virus and continue contracting the disease every day. Thousands continue dying from the illness.

Yes, death is all around us! But so, too, is the Spirit. We carry the dying and the rising of Jesus in our bodies.   In the midst of the presence of death, is the presence of Jesus. We are not abandoned. And, in faith, we know that death is not the end of our lives but the beginning of our lives in eternity!

As difficult as times are right now, we know, in faith, that Jesus is in the boat with us. He may seem asleep but is not. He bids us come to Him, as He bade Peter to come to Him over the waters. When Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and began to sink, Jesus reached out His hand and saved him. He does the same for us.

Let us keep our eyes on Jesus and not sink under the onslaught of those who are venting their anger in our streets, destroying property, killing fellow citizens, striking out wildly at those who speak the truth. Jesus saves!  Jesus is God! We are not!

His Commandment Is Eternal Life

Today's Gospel, John 12: 44-50, speaks of the union of the Son and the Father. Jesus says:  "Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me, and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain  in darkness."  He reminds us that He did not speak on His own: "...[T]he Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I  say as the Father told me."  

The Father sent Jesus. He also sent you and me. And for the same reason: that we would be light in the world in which we live.  And, if light, then others with whom we interact do not live in the darkness, either.  Furthermore, by seeing us in action, others, if living a life of faith, see the Father and the Spirit and Jesus working through us, unless, of course, we are involved in works of darkness, that is sin.

Jesus also makes a significant statement when He says that He knows that the Father's commandment "is eternal life."  God's commandments, the formal ones given to us through Moses, and those given to us through the Holy Spirit directing us to do good in the world are "eternal life"  for us, as well, and for those who benefit from the good we do in word and in deed! That peace that you and I experience throughout the day, I believe, is a peace that comes from heaven and is a piece of heaven here on earth!  We tasted "eternal life" in those  moments!

God Has No Favorites

In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 62,we praise God, saying: "Lord, you give back to everyone according to his works."   In the first reading, Romans 2: 1-11, St. Paul reminds us that God has no favorites. Anyone who does evil will reap accordingly and those who do good, as well. Whether Greek (Gentiles) or Jews, whether rich or poor, whether persons who hold high offices or "low", whether this race or another, this nationality or another, whether black or white or any other color,  whether Native American, African American, Chinese or Japanese, Russian or European, Scottish or Danish, and so on:  God "will repay everyone according to his [her] works, eternal life to those who seek glory, honor and immortality through perseverance in good works, but wrath and fury to those who selfishly disobey the truth and obey wickedness."  No exceptions for anyone in any state of life or any nationality or any culture or any status!  To emphasize, St. Paul states: "Yes, affliction and distress will come upon everyone who does evil, Jew first and then Greek. But there will be glory , honor, and peace for everyone who does good. Jew first and then Greek. There is no partiality with God."

Oh, the mercy of our God so admirably revealed to us on the cross when Jesus said to the good thief, who rebuked the thief beside him who was mocking Jesus and asked Jesus to remember him when he got to His kingdom. "This day, Jesus said to him, you will be with me in paradise."  Because of God's mercy toward us, Jesus says the same thing to you and me when we acknowledge him as Savior and God and repent of our sinfulness: "This day you will be with me in paradise," not that we earned it but because Jesus secured it for us when he triumphed over sin and death through His resurrection from the dead.

Thank  you, my Lord and my God, "my rock and my salvation, my stronghold" (Psalm 62)!

"God Sent His Son Born of a Woman" (Gal 4: 4-5)

The Entrance antiphon of today's liturgy reminds us that "God sent his Son, born of a woman, so that we might receive adoption as children" (Gal 4:4-5).  God is father of both Jesus and us, as God is our Creator.  In  taking on human nature in Mary's womb through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus becomes a brother to us and we a brother/sister to Him. As adopted brothers and sisters of Jesus, we share the same inheritance that is His as a human being.  That inheritance is heaven!  And we know the ransom Jesus ultimately paid to open heaven for us--He was obedient to God the Father unto death on the cross. At the end of our lives we, too,  in obedience to God's will, will die with Jesus. At that moment our spirit self, our true selves, will return to heaven from whence we have come, unless we deny God.   If we deny God, God will deny us!  At the  final resurrection our mortal bodies that were returned to the earth in our burial will also rise and enter eternal life with Jesus forever.

The Entrance Antiphon clearly states that Jesus assumed human nature, entering Mary's womb--human nature and divine nature are united! Our humanity is lifted up to a state of divinity, though we are not God.  We share God's divine nature, as Jesus shares our human nature! What a gift! And what humility on the part of God becoming a human being, just like us in all things but sin!  Jesus shows us the depth, the length, the breadth, and the width of God's love for us and also shows us the way to the Father, the way of loving others and ourselves unto death! Love casts out fear, hatred, lust, envy, jealousy, selfishness, pride, greediness and any other sin that separates us from one another and causes divisions among us! The Gospels give witness to how Jesus fostered union with others, how He loved others and reconciled people with His and their Father God.  We are to do the same!

The Lord: Our Allotted Portion and Our Cup

In tomorrow's Entrance Antiphon, we pray: "O Lord, my allotted portion and my cup, you it is who hold fast my lot.  For me the measuring lines have fallen on pleasant sites; fair to me indeed is my inheritance."

That inheritance is not something you and I deserve. The inheritance of life forever with God in heaven is an inheritance for which an immense ransom was paid: the human birth, life, sufferings, death and resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  The Incarnate God poured out his blood, became the sacrificial lamb, for you and me! The "Lord [is our] allotted portion and [our] cup" at the price of Jesus' life and death on the cross.   It is a free gift of God's unconditional love for you and me!

Like Jesus, you and I pass "from death to life" in loving our brothers and sisters (compare tomorrow's first reading, 1 John 3: 11-21).  John reminds us that "[w]hoever does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother [or sister] is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him [her]. The way we came to know love was that he [Jesus] laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers [sisters]. If someone who has worldly means sees a brother [sister] in need and refuses him [her] compassion, how can the love of God remain in him [her]? Children," John says to us, "let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth."

John puts it on the line for us! And God Himself has written this law of love on everyone's heart. We have no excuses for walking by someone in need and not helping if we have the means to help, whether that be financial means, material means or spiritual/psychological means to make a difference in that person's life by acts of love, by caring, by acting compassionately.

How do you and I measure up to what God is asking of us?

The Feast of All Souls

Today we celebrate the feast of All Souls--those women and men who have returned to their eternal home before us. For many of us, that means that we have said good-bye to our grandparents, parents, some of our siblings, Aunts and Uncles, some of our cousins, nieces, nephews and grandnieces and grandnephews. All have been "brought to life" in Christ Jesus, we are told in the entrance antiphon of today's liturgy.  The first reading, Wisdom 3:1-9, reminds us that the "souls of the just [our loved ones] are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.....[T]hey are in peace.....[C]hastised a little, they... [are] greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself. In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble;... the Lord...[is] their King forever."

We do not know the day nor the hour that you and I will be born into eternal life nor do we know the circumstances of our death. God knows! And God will be at our side when we die. God will come to us at that moment and be the light in the darkness of our death. God will take us by the hand and guide us through death's door into eternity, saying to us:  "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Mt. 25:34)! 

Jesus' Directness

In today's Gospel, Mark 10: 17-30, a man runs up to Jesus, kneels down, and poses the following question to him: "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?  ....You know the commandments," Jesus says to him and spells out what those commandments are. The man answers: "Teacher, all of those I have kept since my youth."  Jesus looks at the man and loves him deeply. He says to him:  You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have  treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."  The man's face fell, and he walked away from Jesus saddened, "for he had many possessions," of which he was not ready to let go!

With some fear, I asked Jesus:  What must I do to inherit eternal life?  With greater fear, I asked Jesus to tell me what was the one thing that I lacked?  And He told me!

What question or questions do you need to ask Jesus? After you ask that question, wait, in prayer, for Jesus' answer!  Be not afraid!  Jesus is gentle but honest. And remember, as with the man in today's Gospel:  Jesus looks at you and loves you deeply!

From corruptibility to incorruptibility

In today's first reading, 1 Cor 15: 35-37, 42-49, St. Paul reminds us that the body that we now possess here on earth is a corruptible one, a weak one, a natural one and, in his words, "a dishonorable" one.  After we pass through the door of death, however, our resurrected body will be incorruptible, strong, spiritual.  Like all seeds which we plant here on earth and "rise" from the soil a totally different reality, so, too,  the "seed" of the incorruptible body rises totally different from our corruptible, natural bodies. They rise bearing the image of the resurrected Christ!

As we pray in today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 56, we are "bound to God,"..., who will rescue us from death that we "may walk before God in the light of the living."  Such walking with God may be here on earth or in heaven after we are buried in the ground following our earthly death and "the seed" of our incorruptible bodies burst forth, so to speak, in our eternal home!

  

Listening and Responding Caringly

In today's Gospel, Luke 16: 19-31, Jesus tells the Pharisees the story of "a rich man...dressed in purple garments and fine linen [who] dined sumptuously each day. ...[L]ying at his door was a poor man Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the craps that fell from the rich man's table."  Both men died. The rich man ends up in eternal torment while Lazarus entered heaven.  The rich man begs Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his five brothers to pay attention to the poor. Abraham refuses, telling the fallen rich man that his five brothers have Moses and the prophets. They should listen to them. "Oh, no, Abraham," the rich man responds, "if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent."  Abraham responds: "If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead."

Someone has risen from the dead who is Jesus the Lord. Am I listening to Him? Do I pay attention to the small, whispering voice within me guiding me, urging me, encouraging me to respond to the needs of the poor in my midst? The "poor" could be the homeless man/woman standing on a street corner, a fellow parishioners suffering from a terminal or chronic illness, the helpless child in one's home, an infant who is crying out of hunger or sleeplessness or needing a diaper change, a spouse who is exhausted from the demands of caring for toddlers all day. The Spirit may alert me to stop for groceries on the way home from work or some other errand on behalf of the family. Am I listening? Am I responding or do I simply ignore that small, quiet voice, as, most likely, the rich man did when he passed Lazarus by the gate of his mansion!

The gift of Imperishability Awaiting Us

In today's first reading, Wisdom 2: 23-3:9, we are reminded that we have been formed "to be imperishable" and that we were created in God's "own nature"."Our souls, when we die, we are told will be "in the hand of God and no torment shall touch" us.  When we leave this world, some people may think that we are dead. However, we will, very much so, be alive, living with God, our King, forever in His love.  Those of us who live life from this faith-filled perspective possess the "hope of full immortality." Yes, here on earth we will have been chastised a little, yet we "shall be greatly  blessed, because God tried [us] and found [us] worthy of himself, because in Christ Jesus and through Jesus' death and resurrection we are clothed with a robe of salvation. As gold in the furnace, [God] proved [us[ and as sacrificial offerings he [will take us] to himself [as we pass through the door of death into eternal life]."

May we be grateful to God for this incredible gift of mercy and love!

The Almighty, All-Knowing, All-loving, All-Good God

"Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne and from the Lamb,"  we read in today's first reading, Rev 7: 2--4, 9-14.  Being saved, being made whole, being healed, being restored to the fullness of life is a gift from God, our Savior.  We see this process of being made whole, of striving for a restoration to wholeness, happening when we cut ourselves, for instance.  Our bodies naturally heal.  We see death and dying all around us this fall, as the leaves fall to the ground, disintegrate and become fertilizer for new life to burst forth in spring.  The never-ending cycle of birth and rebirth are daily examples of restoration to new life, to wholeness, to returning to fullness of life as God's gift to us.

It is not, I believe,  just when we enter eternal life and receive a new body that we know God's gift of salvation. We know it now here on earth in situations described above and in relationships that are restored when we co-operate with grace, seeking forgiveness after we have brought pain into another person's life.  Cyclically, beginning with the Trinity in the relationship of Father to Son to Holy Spirit and in the Trinity's relationship with each one of us and us with each other, the creative and healing powers of God flow, bringing us, every day,  to a new level of wholeness, to an ever-expanding level of fruition,  and to a sharing more and more in the fullness of life Jesus promises us in the Scriptures.

Truly, "[b]lessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might..." (Rev 7: 2-2, 9-14) belong to the Almighty,  the all-knowing, the all-loving, the all-good God, who put into existence these creative energies, beginning with the start of creation--humankind part of the ongoing process of creation--and extending to eternal life.

The Feast of God's Love Revealed in the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In today's first reading,  Deuteronomy 7: 6-11, Moses reminds the Israelites, and us, that we are "a people sacred to the Lord," our God!  God "has chosen" us,  to be "a people peculiarly his own."  God "set his heart" on Israel, not because it was the greatest of nations but because it was "really the smallest of all nations,"  hardly noticeable!  So too with you and me.  God sets his heart on each one of us, not because of our greatness, but because of our smallness,  not because we are awesome or great, but because, in slang, we are nothing to shake a stick at! It is because God loves us and because of God's "fidelity" to the oath sworn to our ancestors, to those who have passed the faith on to us!  In his faithfulness, Moses reminds the Israelites, God has "brought you out with his strong hand from the place of slavery, and ransomed you from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt."  Faithful to the promises God made to our first parents, God has ransomed us from slavery to the Father of Lies, Satan, by dying upon the cross, nailing sin to the cross and taking Satan's power away from him. We are redeemed in Christ Jesus. Forever, God loves us even unto death on the cross, when from His heart blood and water flowed and continues to flow in baptism and in Eucharist and from all of the other sacraments that purify us and strengthen us in God's love.

May you and  know God's love today as we follow God unreservedly, seeking His presence in the events of our day and listening to His voice in those we encounter today and within the depths of our ow hearts!

HAPPY EASTER!

HALLELUIA! The Lord is Risen. Heaven has been open to us. Sin is destroyed! Alleluia! Satan’s power taken away from him. He will not be victorious in turning us away from our God and Savior, unless, like Judas, we do not seek His mercy and love.

Pardoned, forgiven, saved by God’s love for us and His mercy toward us! Alleluiua!
Pardoned by the Lord’s love shown to us by Jesus’ obedience to the Father unto death. Alleluia!

Yet, for our sins was Jesus put to death! Alleluia, praise to our Savior and Lord!

Every woman and man, every child and adolescent, has died with Christ in baptism and will rise with Christ at the end of his or her time here on earth. Alleluia.

Alleluia. O death, where is your sting! Death, for us,  includes the resurrection, as it did for Jesus!

Sting of death, you have been dissolved into the joy of our awaiting for Jesus to return to take us with Him! Alleluia!

Today, Jesus, said to the good thief on the cross, you will be with me in Paradise. Jesus will say the same thing to you and I when we are about to be released from death. Alleluia!

Ever mindful of God’s unconditional love for us, we, too, await our resurrection into eternal life! Alleluia!

Remember that you have been ransomed from sin by Jesus’ death and resurrection! Alleluia!

The Feast of All Souls

Today we celebrate the Feast of All Souls, that is, we remember all of those who have gone before us, all who have fallen asleep in the Lord and who, in Christ Jesus, will be brought back to life in eternity.  All of the just are in God’s hands, the author of Wisdom tells us in chapter 3: 1-9.  We certainly grieved their passing and may even have thought that their deaths were a tragedy or absolute foolishness.  Some believe that their loved ones are dead, period!  And that nothing exist after our deaths.   But, no, there is life after death. Jesus died and rose. In our baptism, we died and rose with Christ. Our final resurrection will happen at the end of our lives, as it did for Jesus.  

You and I walk this earth, undergoing a chastisement, a purification, as we grow in intimacy with the Lord.  At the appropriate time, God’s time, we will leave our earthly life for a heavenly one, having been “found worthy” of God, Wisdom tells us. “As gold in the furnace, [God proves us], and, [in death] as sacrificial offerings [God takes us] to himself. In the time of [our] visitation we] shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble…and the Lord shall be [our] King forever....[The] faithful shall abide with [God] in love: because grace ad mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with his elect.”  You and I, through our baptism, are God chosen ones, God’s elect. Death will have no more power over us than it had over Jesus.  St. Paul says to us in Roman s 6: 3-9:  “Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.  For we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.”    Yes! With Jesus, we shall overcome death and, like Jesus, rise to new life in our own resurrection!

I believe! How about you?

Glorious Triumph of our Savior

In the Entrance Antiphon for today’s liturgy of Thursday of the Third Week of Easter, we pray: “Let us sing to the Lord, for he has gloriously triumphed.”  In the Collect, we ask the Lord to “let us feel…[His] compassion more readily during these days when, by…[His] gift, we have known…[God’s compassion toward us] more fully, so that those…[the Lord has]  freed from the darkness of error may cling more firmly to the teachings of [His] truth.”

How aware am I that God the Son, Jesus, has “gloriously triumphed” in my life and will continue to triumph in my daily life, alerting me to the good I am invited to do, opening my eyes to His Love at work in my life and in the life of others around me as well as lifting me up from hopelessness, fear, apathy, discouragement, sin itself, deceitful patterns and so on, over and over and over again?  Am I aware that I have truly been “freed from the darkness or error” in my past and that God will do so in my future? Believing in Christ Jesus and humbly acknowledging my weaknesses and sinfulness, repenting of my sins in the sacrament of confession and in communication with those against whom I have sinned puts me on the path to eternal life! What a gift and what a challenge in living this truth day by day, clinging “more firmly to the teaching of [His] truth” every day!

In the Father's Hand

In today’s Gospel, John 10: 22-30,  Jesus says to me and to you:  “You are my lamb; I know you, and you follow me.  I give you eternal life, Dorothy Ann (insert your name), and you shall never perish. No one can take you out of my hand. My Father, who has given you to me, is greater than all, and no one can take you out of my Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

“I give you eternal life, and you shall never perish!” Lord, the ultimate goal of my life is that I make it to eternity  as a faithful disciple, as a Christian,  to be with you forever. With You, Lord, and no one else. You and You alone. On Your part, Lord, You sacrificed Your life so that I might have eternal life with You. May I not disappoint You and choose otherwise.  Steer me on the path that leads to You and to You alone, as You did for each of Your apostles and 1000s of disciples since then. Following Your resurrection and in the midst of persecution, the disciples scattered to various parts of the world at that time.  They continued to make You known and 1000s of people came to know you, the one true God, the Redeemer of the world.  May, I too, no matter what the circumstances of my life, make you known, work for Your Cause, that all people may come to know you the Way, the Truth and the Life.   May I truly proclaim the Gospel with my life, as did the disciples in today’s first reading, Acts  11 19-26, because your hand is with me, as it was with them.  I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Work for That Which Endures

In today’s Gospel, John 6: 22-29, following the multiplication of the loaves, Jesus’ disciples had gotten into a boat and sailed across the sea to Capernaum but Jesus did not go with them. He stayed behind and, out on the sea, the disciples see “him walking on the sea.”   The crowd that witnessed the multiplication of the loaves set out to find him and when they do, say to Him:  “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answers: “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate loaves and were filled.” Then Jesus makes a statement that, again, reveals who He is. He says: “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” The crowd does not recognize Jesus as the one upon whom God has set his seal. They do not recognize Him as the Messiah, the One sent by God to sit forever on the throne of David as King of a Kingdom that is not of this world. Hence Jesus says to them: "You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate loaves and were filled.”

For what reason am I a disciple of Christ? For what reason am I a member of the Church founded on the apostles with Jesus as its head? What am I seeking in my church life?  For what or whom am I looking? A Messiah who frees me from my sinfulness? A Messiah who teaches me how to love and forgive? A Messiah who is preparing me to be part of a Kingdom that is not of this world?  Or, like the crowd, am I only seeking to be filled of things that do not transcend this world? Am I only looking to "feel full emotionally--a feel-good religion," not a relationship with God that demands that I empty myself for others as Jesus did, excluding no one.

Fertility: God's Promise to Abraham

 In today’s Gospel, John 8: 51-59, when Jesus proclaimed that anyone who keeps His word will never see death,  the Jews asked Jesus:  “Who do you make yourself out to be?”  The people also shouted at him, saying “Now we are sure that you are possessed.”    We live in a world where people, by their lack of faith and by living immoral or amoral lives,  also question who Jesus is. Another example of doubting who Jesus is  when people scoff at the Catholic belief that Jesus is present in the host following the consecration at a Catholic Mass, even though Jesus, at the Last Supper, “took some bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body which will be given for you; do this as a memorial of me.’  He did the same with the cup after supper, and said, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood which will be poured out for you’”  (Luke 22: 19-20). 

The Old Covenant is referred to in today’s first reading, Gen. 17:3-9,  when God said to Abraham: “My covenant with you is this: you are to become the father of a host of nations….I will render you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings shall stem from you….I will…be your God and the God of your descendants after you,” He was speaking  ultimately  to us.  One of the kings that stemmed from Abraham was Jesus, whose lineage is traced back to King David. Jesus, the Son of God made man,  is our King.   His Kingdom has no end. We are incorporated into that Kingdom in our baptism. Each of us is “rendered exceedingly fertile,” by Jesus’ obedience unto death. Our own fertility comes to full fruition in eternity as proclaimed by Jesus when He said: “…anyone who keeps His word will never see death.”  We bear abundant fruit here on earth when we, by grace, are obedient to the will of our Father as Jesus was. 

Lord, out of your infinite glory, “may…[you] give …[us] the power [fertility] through …[your] Spirit for …[our] hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in …[our] hearts through faith, and then planted in love and built on love, …[we] will with all the saints have strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth; until, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, …[we] are filled with the utter fullness of God.” Yes, may we become as fertile as Christ was fertile!

Faith in the Son of God and in God's Testimony

In today’s first reading, 1 John 5: 5-13, we are told that those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God are victorious over the world and all its evil, its apathy, its denials, its prejudices and injustices. Those who believe that there is One who saves  us, guides us, protects us, directs us, enlightens us, empowers us to do good and avoid evil experience the victory of Jesus on the cross, where evil was destroyed.   Those who  believe that Jesus is the Son of God seek His counsel, depend upon Him to show them the Way, lead them to the Truth and restore them to life when they are skirting death. Those who believe realize that without God they are nothing, that all good has its source in  God and that God alone leads us to Truth, empowers us in the Truth and reconciles our differences, forgives us our offenses, and leads us to seek forgiveness, God’s and that of those whom we have offended. 

“Whoever believes in the Son of God,” John further tells us, “has this testimony (God’s testimony on behalf of His Son) within him[her]self….And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever possesses the Son has life; whoever does not possess the Son of God does not have life.”  God has given us eternal life and that eternal life exists in Jesus, who, John states,  “ came through water and Blood,…not by water alone, but by water and Blood.”   You and I have come into this world through the water in the womb, were reborn through the water  and the Spirit in baptism, and restored to life over and over again through the Blood of the Son of God poured out on the cross and received in Holy Communion.   All who eat of this bread and drink of this wine that is consecrated at every Catholic Mass and becomes the Body and Blood of Jesus have eternal life (John 6:24).

Lord, I believe! What about you?