Acts 8:5-8, 14-17; Ps. 66:1-7, 16, 20; 1Peter 3:15-18; Jn. 14:15-21
Faith and works unite love and justice into the one body of Christ. It is the works of the will that reveal faith as the visible sign of invisible grace given to us who seek and ask. This is the testimony of Philip in today’s reading (Acts) who proclaim Christ to the people of Samaria with visible power in the miracles he performed. How do we demonstrate the power of Christ in our daily lives?
1st Peter in his letter calls us to testify to God’s power in us when we “suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God.” The “if” reminds us not all suffering is the will of God when evil remains in this world. The will of God comes in suffering from keeping his commandments. These works of our will call upon the “Spirit of truth” to be our Advocate when we respond with “gentleness and reverence, keeping our conscience clear”. This is our challenge to call upon the Advocate in our struggle faced with adversity.
How easy it is to fall into a battle of wills with those we love most. The impulse is to return “fire with fire” sometimes aggressively getting loud and demanding or sometimes very passive aggressive with rejection through silence and denial of our love. The human “battlefield” is what the disciples of Jesus hoped for yet Christ followed the righteous path for the sake of the unrighteous”. Our human battlefield begins within for the sake off a greater good.
Let not the peace of Christ be disturbed by what comes from without but from within for the evil one is always baiting our souls to fall again into temptation. What is from without is “dis-ease” meaning a lack of ease about what we cannot control and what wants to control us. Our power is to reject all dis-ease as from the evil one and claiming the peace of Christ he offered his disciples at his at his appearance after the resurrection when his first words were “Peace be with you”. Let our hearts not be troubled by pandemics that rise and fall taking innocent lives for even if this suffering comes into our lives the promise of the resurrection is waiting to rescue us.
In listening to a Catholic radio program, the guest was giving his conversion story from Protestant to Catholic. He concluded his story recalling how his father a Baptist “died” from a heart attack but was brought back to life in the ambulance. Later that year he asked his Father what his death experience was like. His father said it was not what he expected. To his surprise instead of seeing heaven he went to this “intermediary” place where he had to give account of his life. As Catholics we identify this intermediary place as purgatory and also the Church suffering. It suffers as it waits for justice and heaven. We fail to speak more on purgatory as is needed in our call to repentance while we battle in our time as the Church militant. This is our battlefield for justice in heaven and earth.
The battlefield is fought and won within our souls with the help of the Advocate bringing us the spirit of truth. Our battle is a sacrificial offering of our day living in the Spirit of truth called to pick up our cross and follow the spirit in faith to victory. Jesus is waiting to claim victory for us when we unite our will to his we become one body in Christ with the power of the unseen God.
In the human existence we often confuse love as forgiveness with an avoidance of consequence. Love and justice in God are both present and justice is his. A child says “I’m sorry” and expects the parent to not impose justice. Children don’t understand the value of justice and if it is not fair justice may even lose faith in love. As children of God we often come to expect forgiveness without justice but justice belongs to God and it comes with love. Dante described purgatory as the place we go to wash our baptismal robes. The “place” is a process of cleansing of sin that remains as we leave our mortal bodies and claim our promise of heaven. It is not a denial of God’s love but a perfection of our love to receive his glory as an unblemished tabernacle of our souls. It is the unity of love and justice as one. Faith unites to love as works unites to justice for faith without works is a call to death eternal. We are a people of the resurrection in faith and works for the greater good.
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