Steadfast in purpose. An amazing example!

Recently while prayerfully reading Acts chapter 11:19-26, I was struck, once again, by the early church's missionary zeal.

It is the account of those who were scattered because of the persecution in Jerusalem and how they continued to witness to Jesus as Lord! They weren't silenced or intimidated by the persecution.They couldn't stop talking about this good news of what God had done in Jesus of Nazareth who was raised from the dead. Some of those who were evangelizing began to share with non-Jews, Greeks, about the Lord Jesus. As a result many came to believe! The Church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to Antioch to see what was happening and to help build up the new believers. When he saw the grace of God evident in the lives of those who believed, he was glad. Barnabas then exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord and steadfast in purpose (vs 23). I felt like that was a word for me and for those of us who serve in and our friends of ChristLife. It is a good word, isn't it? Something we all want in our walk with the Lord Jesus. To be faithful to him and absolutely steadfast in our purpose.

While in Michigan last week presenting a mission for two parishes, the pastor of St. Therese's shared a YouTube video that really illustrates faithfulness and steadfastness in purpose. Take a look and give thanks to the Lord for this man! You may not feel called to do what he did, but the key point that all of us should admire is his steadfastness in doing what he was called to do!

May we all have such passion to make the Lord known to others! May each of us be steadfast in purpose.

How do you get to heaven?

Lots of people, Christians and those of other religions or no religious belief at all, believe in heaven. Fewer people seem to believe in hell or at least don’t want to think about it. And now days many don’t seem to give much thought to how you get to one place or the other.

Christ talked about the existence of both frequently, and urged everyone to do what was necessary to go to heaven. As Christians our reason for believing in the existence of heaven and hell is because we believe in Him and He believed in them!

Back in the 1970’s I taught religion at a Jesuit boys high school. At some point during the courses I taught I would ask the question, “When you die what is the reason for getting to go to heaven?” I almost always got the same answers: Because I was good, I didn’t hurt anyone, I was sincere. Rarely was Jesus mentioned as the answer. Many of the students had received Catholic education throughout their schooling yet did not understand what Christ Jesus had to do with eternal life.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except by me.” (John 14:6) He also said, “eternal life is this to know you the only true God, an Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)

The Church teaches, “By his death and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has “opened heaven to us. The life of the blessed consists in the full and perfect possession of the fruits of the redemption accomplished by Christ. He makes partners in his heavenly glorification those who have believed in him and remain faithful to his will. Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into him.” Check it out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), 1027

The essential answer for our getting to go to heaven is, Christ. Jesus has “opened heaven to us.” He is the way we can be eternally with God. By his death and resurrection Jesus accomplished what we in and of ourselves could not accomplish - our redemption. It is the love of God made manifest on the cross, bearing our sins, granting us forgiveness and through the Spirit entry into relationship with God. It is God’s initiative, not ours that allows us this access to eternal joy with the Trinity and all of the saints and angels! The Father wants us to be with Him eternally and through the Son has made the way for us be with them, happily ever after! It is our responsibility to respond to this grace of God with faith doing his will in our daily lives.

Let me make one comment on hell. Hell is the consequence of our free will. We can choose it for ourselves. God does not cast anyone into hell against his will. If we truly are creatures with free will then we have the capacity to say no to a loving Creator. That is essentially what hell is. Eternal separation from the One who loves us so much that he allows us to choose to be with Him, or not. Take a look in the CCC, 1033-1037.

The Church also teaches that even those who have not baptized and responded with faith in Christ may be saved (under the impulse of grace) who “sincerely seek God and strive to do his will can also be saved without Baptism (Baptism of desire).” CCC,1258-1261. It is a mystery and thank God He is the judge of all and not me or you! It is not our responsibility to judge who is or isn’t going to heaven when they die.

Our responsibility is to pray for salvation for everyone and to be witnesses of the eternal life that begins here and now in knowing the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (See John 17:3 noted above). What is important for those of us who know Christ and are seeking to do his will, is to graciously be available to share the good news of what God has done in Jesus our Lord so that all might have fullness of life here and eternal happiness in heaven! After all, if we believe in a heaven and hell we certainly want to help others to be in heaven and to know the way to get there!

Set apart a day of praise and thanksgiving to God!

In 1863 during a time of severe human tragedy and division within the United States, President Lincoln called the nation to stop everything and set apart a day to remember with thanksgiving and praise the Father from whom all good gifts come. Really! That is exactly what he called for.

This proclamation is one worthy of reflection precisely in the times we are living in. In the midst of conflicts and shaking throughout the world and here in the U.S., we would do well to again set apart a "day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwells in the heavens."

Lincoln's Proclamation of a National Day of Praise and thanksgiving to God.

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the iron and coal as of our precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

Abraham Lincoln

What then shall I compare the people of this generation?

What then did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in kings' courts. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, `Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.' ... (When they heard this all the people and the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John; but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.)

"To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the market place and calling to one another, `We piped to you, and you did not dance;we wailed, and you did not weep.'For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine; and you say, `He has a demon.' The Son of man has come eating and drinking; and you say, `Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is justified by all her children."Luke 7:25-35

God is not distant and removed from creation and his creatures. He is with us! He is not static but active, creative, redeeming-moving in his all powerful Holy Spirit in our 'today.' The Lord Jesus points out the purposes of God coming in two very different persons. John the prophet forerunner preparing the way, and Jesus the Messiah. The Pharisees and lawyers rejected the purposes of God for themselves in what He was doing in their day. They missed his activity, his will for them in the persons of John and Jesus. They couldn't see God working among them.

There are many Christians as well as unbelievers that have no understanding of this truth. They don't know the good news of Emmanuel, God with us today! Here and now. Jesus said, I am with you always. In Christ God the Father has given us the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us as Church but also personally in our daily lives (have you read the Acts of the Apostles recently?).

This reality effects everything. Who we are and what we do. How we pray personally and when we gather together. Anticipation and openess to the Holy Spirit's guidance. Attentiveness to His providence in our lives and in interacting with others, and with circumstances we are in daily. Our faith in His faithfulness in all details of our lives. Our confidence in his mercy coming through times of joy (we danced for you) and in times of sorrow (we sang a dirge for you). His grace in presenting his life to us in the church by different kinds of churches as well as different types of people that we can identify and respond to. John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus were very different as the Lord himself pointed out.

In this time, in our generation, the Lord continues to fulfill his purposes. Let's pray for our eyes to be opened to see what he is doing and our ears to hear what He saying and to obey Him! (See John 5:19,20 to learn from the Master). He wants us to know with confidence that He is with us and wants us to join Him in fulfilling his purposes in our day!