Acts 9:26-31; Ps. 22:26-28, 30-32; 1 Jn. 3:18-24; Jn. 15:1-8
Remain in me! This is our Lord’s command today. We remain in him by following his commandments. There is a famous expression that says, “trust but verify”. The way we verify that we remain in the Lord each day is by an examination of conscience. Let us examine our word and deed against the commandments of the Lord and what fruit they bear coming “from the Spirit he gave us”, the Spirit of truth.
The Lord says, “remain in me” and “if our hearts do not condemn us” we will “receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.” Sadly, there are many who follow their conscience and whose hearts do not condemn them but fail to keep God’s commandments. We see this every day in the secular world who preach their own secular doctrine of agnosticism believing in a world without God. We also see it in our own community among what is called “cafeteria Catholics” who are selective when it comes to following the teaching of the Church. With one foot out and one foot in trying to have it their way is not remaining in the Lord.
The teaching of the Church is the application of God’s commandments in our times on all the issues of life and death, justice and peace, good and evil. It is not relative to each person’s individual conscience but to sacred truth. While someone’s heart may not condemn them failure to fulfill the commandments in practice reveal a misguided conscience and the separation from the will of God. This is the Lord’s teaching on faith without works is dead because they are not the works of the Spirit of God but a misguided faith.
This is the lesson Saul teaches us when he was following his faith as a Jew zealous in following his beliefs by persecuting Jesus and his followers at the same time. Saul was righteous in his heart until he encountered Jesus and all things changed. We need an encounter with Jesus, the world needs an encounter with Jesus, and Jesus is ready for the encounter but he is waiting for someone to be bold in their faith, trust in the Lord and remain in him. The disciples feared Saul, but Barnabas was brave taking charge of Saul revealing the work of Jesus through Saul and verifying his authenticity by his deeds. A good examination of conscience can ask how our actions towards others are persecuting Jesus when we failed to love, to forgive, to give of ourselves and denied him what he desires of us.
Today we recognize the tremendous fruit that came from Saul’s conversion to become Paul, God’s servant to the Gentiles. Why was Paul such a good evangelist? He did what the Lord commanded. His obedience from the Spirit he received was joyful regardless of the risk to his own life. When we remain in God, we accept the reality that there will be good times and bad times but our spirit of joy remains because he remains in us. We can offer ourselves in all times for his greater purpose. Even our suffering can bear fruit and bring others to the foot of the cross and remain in him.
Finally, the Spirit of truth verifies that Jesus remains in us when we know how to pray, seek and ask. The God who is “greater than our hearts and knows everything” remains waiting to give to his people the desires of what is good for the soul, what is pleasing to the Lord, and what will bear much fruit. The Spirit of truth is a revelation of just how much God loves us when we remain in him, trust in him, and seek him. Jesus entered into our humanity that we may encounter his divinity and remain in relationship with him.
Every day we are in constant communication with each other over all kinds of things from what to wear, the weather, what to eat and what needs to be done but when do we stop to have a heart-to-heart conversation with each other? Those are the talks we remember when our parents sat us down and felt it was important enough to stop all the other distractions and share from the heart something that really matters in life. It may have been that car ride moment, sitting on the bar stool, taking that walk together but it still remains with you. Those are “the talks” that still have an impact in our life. Hopefully we are having those type of talks with our children because they will never forget how important it was to us. That is the type of talk Jesus is waiting to have with us. His talk will bring us to our knees but when we rise up, we will remain in him and he in us.
Recent Comments