The Progression of our Salvation

In today’s Gospel, Mark 4: 35-41, we are presented with the story of Jesus’  disciples detaching from the crowd by crossing to the other side of the lake.  It is evening and they take Jesus with them.  Shortly after getting into the boat, ”a violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat so that it was already filling up.”  Jesus, in the meantime, fell asleep in the stern, probably dead tired from a very long day in ministry.  The disciples are frantic as the boat fills up with water and wake Jesus, saying: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Jesus wakes up, rebukes the wind and says to the sea, “Quiet! Be still.” And the wind and the sea obey Jesus’ command and cease their stormy terror!  “Where is your faith,” Jesus asks the disciples. “Why are you terrified?”

We may be entering one of the stormiest times of U.S. history. And Jesus asks us the same question: ´”Where is your faith?” “Why are you terrified?”   Those are the questions  you and I are faced with in the storms of life-- our personal life, the life of our families, our ecclesial life, the political life of our country, the threats from other countries or the actions we take as a nation that could lead to violence toward us from other countries or to other countries abandoning us, as we “vow” to isolate ourselves from our neighbors around the world.

Jesus, and Jesus alone, is our Savior. He is aware of the times we are treading water, when “violent squalls” come up and waves are breaking over the “boat” of our lives. Jesus/God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  What God has done to bring the Chosen People to the Promised Land and what Jesus had done to save the disciples in the boat and us through His death on Calvary is what God will do for us in 2017 and beyond! What is happening, I believe, is not about any political figure or world leader anymore than it was about politics in Jesus’ earthly life. It is about God working out our salvation in Christ Jesus! 

Unflinching faith of Peter and the Apostles

In today’s first reading, Acts 5: 27-33, the Apostles are brought before the Sanhedrin and are questioned by the high priest, accusing them of teaching in Jesus’ name when they have been ordered to stop doing so.  Peter and the Apostles are unafraid and firmly state that they must obey God, not human beings. Without flinching, Peter and the Apostles stand up to their accusers, to those who are likely to throw them into prison, flog them and even have them put to death.  The faith of Peter and the Apostles is unwavering. They keep their focus on the Lord Jesus, whom God has “exalted…at his right hand as leader and savior to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.” Peter and the Apostles will not stop giving witness to this truth and reminding the leaders of Israel, and us, that they “killed [Jesus] by hanging him on a tree.”

How strong is my faith/your faith?  When we are being confronted by unbelievers, by those who are bent on our destruction, our demise, on silencing us or tripping us up so as to condemn us or prove us wrong, do we stand up to them or back down and go along with the crowd? Do we back down from doing what is right out of fear of other people’s reactions?  Do we give into the temptation to please others when doing so is against God’s will for us?

Sin and its consequences—eternal death for unrepentant sinners and unbelievers—and God’s will that we all be saved from sin by the only One who can save us, God Incarnate, “killed [Jesus] by hanging him on a tree.” And, if necessary, the Incarnate God would do it again to save every single one of us. That is God’s love, God’s mercy and God’s compassion for each one of us. Yes, God loves us so much that He gave His only begotten Son, God Incarnate, to be sin for us and nail sin to the cross. 

I believe this. What is your belief?  I praise and thank God for this love, this mercy, this compassion. For what do you praise and thank God?

Standing firm in my faith

In today’s first reading, Daniel 3: 14-20, 91-92, 95, we read of the heroic testimony of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who refuse to worship  King Nebuchadnezzar’s  false god, a golden statue.  Death or life is put before these three men and they choose life. “We have no need to defend ourselves before you,” they tell the king.   “If our God, whom we serve, will save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us! But even if he will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue that you set up.”

What faith! What courage! Nothing will deter these brothers from remaining faithful to their God-- the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of their ancestors.

Do I stand up to the “Nebuchadnezzar’s” in my life? Do I have the courage to do what is right and just no matter what the consequences? If those consequences are costly, do I still hold firm to what I believe? Maybe I will lose some friends. Maybe I will be left standing with no one taking my side. Maybe I will be denied a promotion, be slandered, put down, ridiculed. Maybe even my family will reject me for my faith in the one true God and in Jesus Christ, my Savior.

Lord, I pray for the faith and courage of Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego.  May I stand firm in the faith that my parents handed down to me, even when those around me scoff at my beliefs or challenge me to abandon my faith.

A Time for Everything (Eccl 3:1-11)

“There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for everything under the heavens” we read in today’s first reading, Eccl 3: 1-11.  How difficult for us to comprehend the Wisdom of God. I don’t understand, for instance,  why my mother was taken from the family when four of my siblings were still in grade school and I was still a teenager. I don’t understand why evil persists in the world, why men and women struggle desperately and still face foreclosures; why children, adolescents and young adults are kidnapped and sold into the sex slave, drugged and raped. I don’t understand why women, many times, are treated like second class citizens, less than male counterparts, in the world and in the church when Jesus did not treat women that way.  I don’t understand why earthquakes, famines, hurricanes, tornadoes, forest fires and other natural disasters strike so often.  Perhaps the answer is in the reason God was crucified, tortured and made subject to death. That seems senseless, too, to a faithless heart.  Faith tells us, however, that Jesus’ death was the key to life, eternal life, salvation and a restoration of our relationship with God and  one another. Time takes on infinite meaning in the Timeless One. So all those things I don’t understand contain the Seed of Timelessness, the Seed that will bear new life in time.  In all the incomprehensible facts of life,  God’s work is being accomplished with us not knowing, most of the time (cf.  Eccl 3:1-11).  As Soren Kirkegaard  once said: Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.  And how challenging it is to live with life’s mysteries, especially the mysteries of our faith and the mystery of persistent injustices in the world and in the church, especially  among men and women who profess to be following the way Jesus modeled for us.