Thursday, April 20, 2017

Faith is not the power of positive thinking; it is believing in God and trusting that His will is always best even when you cannot understand why


“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” ― C.S. Lewis: (1898 – 1963: was a British novelist, poet, & academic)

Gospel Text: (LK 24:35-48)
The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way,
and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread.

While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
"Peace be with you."
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have."
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?"
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.

He said to them,
"These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled."
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them,
"Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things."

In the Gospel we hear of his very own disciples being overwhelmed by His appearance, even though they were just talking to each other about recognizing him in the breaking of the Bread.  Jesus seems to be trying to convince them that he is real and that all that he has told them would happen has happened.  But nonetheless, they are incredulous and he still needs to open their minds to understand the scriptures.  It is not through their own intellect or logic that they understand but only when Jesus opens their minds.  In fact, even though Jesus’ walks and talks, even eats with the Apostles after his Resurrection, their faith will remain weak until Pentecost when the Holy Spirit will fill them with the gifts they need to fully live their faith.


But how strong is our Faith?  Do we live as though we really believe in all that happened this last week?  How would our lives be different if our Faith were stronger?

No comments:

Post a Comment