Today at Holy Mass in the first reading St Paul breaks it all down…”For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins”….Everything about our faith rests in that one sentence…Jesus rose from the dead so sins can be forgiven…This is fundamental in our understanding of our Catholic faith and it should be equally fundamental in the way we view our life…..We are ALL sinners and Christ came for sinners, which means Jesus came for YOU!…However…Here is the catch!…We need to ask him through the Church he founded upon St Peter in the Sacrament of Confession to be forgiven…Not my words…Nor is this my opinion….
“Conversion to Christ, the new birth of Baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Body and Blood of Christ received as food have made us "holy and without blemish," just as the Church herself, the Bride of Christ, is "holy and without blemish." Nevertheless the new life received in Christian initiation has not abolished the frailty and weakness of human nature, nor the inclination to sin that tradition calls concupiscence , which remains in the baptized such that with the help of the grace of Christ they may prove themselves in the struggle of Christian life. This is the struggle of conversion directed toward holiness and eternal life to which the Lord never ceases to call us.”
I want to let you in on a little secret…Jesus is not looking for “believers”….Such a common misconception…We hear it all the time…”I believe in Jesus”…Guess what?…So did and does the devil believe in the reality of Jesus….Jesus is looking for followers!…..And if we believe what St Paul stated today in the first reading from Mass…That Jesus rose form the dead…If we truly believe that…Then we have to believe everything he said…And lets be honest…Some of the things Jesus said are VERY hard to do in real time…But guess what?..Jesus loves us so he gave us “the tools” so we can get the needed grace to do everything he said….But here is the catch…As you know…There is always a catch!…You will NEVER be able to do what Jesus said relying on your own strengthen…….Don’t believe me?…Just ask St Peter when he denied Christ after living with him for three years and seeing first hand all the miracles…He still fell short…This is such a common mistake among those who profess to follow Christ…We hear it all the time…”I don’t need to go to Church”…..Let me address that claim very bluntly….YES YOU DO!!!!….Not only is honoring the Sabbath a Commandment…..You will NEVER be able to live the life Christ asked you to live without the grace of the Blessed Sacrament…NEVER!!!…That is why the Holy Eucharist is called in latin viaticum, which means “food for the journey”
I want to let you in on another little secret…I am Catholic because I believe in the living God…But I am also Catholic because I know myself to be a sinner!!!!…I know without a shadow of a doubt that if I do not live a Sacramental life, pray daily, fast weekly….There is NO WAY…I will be the husband God called me to be…The father God called me to be…And the neighbor God called me to be to others…Point Blank - Full Stop…..Do you imagine if all Baptized Catholics utilized these gifts given to us by the Church?…They cost nothing….Yet our world “thinks” they can do it on their own…….For those who have “eyes to see”…Its pretty clear that the world is not doing so good - That includes many Baptized Catholics and professed Christians by the way…So why don’t we consider trying something new?…How about we turn the page?…You just might be surprised by the outcome…As the great John Belushi once said…”Don’t cost nothin”!
“Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom”
Getting back to St Paul and the first reading from Mass today…Paul tells us Jesus is God and he rose from the dead…..Have you ever heard anyone make such a claim?…You either believe that for you don’t…But if you do…Then you have to conclude that everything Jesus said is true….That means we are “on the hook”!…..Believing in Jesus is not enough…To believe infers a response…And that response means we have to live differently……We can not have it both ways….We can not claim to be followers of Christ and not listen to what he said…Jesus is not looking for believers…He is looking for followers…And to follow him implies a response
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