Today at Holy Mass in the first reading St John draws a line in the sand - The world on one side and God on the other……………..”You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They belong to the world; accordingly, their teaching belongs to the world, and the world listens to them”…..We cannot have it both ways!….As Catholics we are called to be in the world but not of the world…That means we are to live differently - The question is - Do we?…..How can we be salt and light to the world around us if we live exactly like our pagan neighbors….Our life’s witness should stand out very clearly…….St John goes on today in the first reading….He ends the passage with this statement…”We belong to God, and anyone who knows God listens to us, while anyone who does not belong to God refuses to hear us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit”…….There is an implication here about how the Church contains the Truth and those who do not listen to the Church have been deceived…..Many Christians today, even Catholics sadly, try to separate the Truth from the Church itself…Separating Jesus from his Church…Separating Catholics from the Pope and the Bishops - This is impossible!…..Jesus is the head and the Church is the body….The “head” cannot be separated from the “body” - Its impossible to do so….Catholics must learn to be obedient…We also must learn as St John tells us to discern the difference between the whisper of God’s voice and the clamor of the world………... “Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist who, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world”………..Its very easy to get “caught up” in the world…This is why we must cling to Christ and his Church…..In doing so, we will both “see” and “hear” our Lord and know the Truth, which remains forever and stands firm.
“Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the Kingdom and cured every disease among the people”
“I am Catholic” - ”BUT”……But what? - There are no “buts”!……The beautiful thing about being Catholic is - Its all written down…All we have to do is read it….The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) is a very readable document….Everything the Church professes is contained within it….That means this document should be used as our guide…The Church is not ours to manipulate…The Catholic Church belongs to Christ and we are simply members….And here is the deal…If we adhere to “the vine” as Jesus tells us to…We will bear “fruit that lasts”…For those reading this reflection and have doubts about what I just wrote…All you have to do is look at the lives of the saints….The saints show us the way…They did things God’s way - Not their way…They remained firmly to “the vine”…And as a result, they made a tremendous impact on the world around them - We can surely do the same - Right?!?…It all comes down to our will and God’s grace…We MUST bend our will until it breaks and we also must open up our hearts to God’s grace…There is the key - Plain and simple…..No person, no matter how gifted has a “better plan” then God’s plan…Jesus laid out that plan for us - He did it by creating a Church…Its time to “follow the blue print” and in doing so, we will shake the foundations of the world!
“Ask of me and I will give you the nations for an inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession.”
St John today at Mass is very clear - The question is - Are we?…..The world or God - We must choose and no choice is a choice……Far too many people “sit on the fence” when it comes to the world and the Church…They allow comfort, the crowd, politics and the desire to belong to influence their Catholic faith - In doing so we “water down” our life’s witness…..No one will ever be convinced to be Catholics by the witness of “Lukewarm Catholicism” - Be assured of that…Jesus was a radical man and so were all the saints…That should tell us something - We too must live our faith radically in the world….We CANNOT be like everyone else….We have to make a decision - Its the world or God……………..There is no middle ground….JMJ
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