Bible
Study: Ephesians 1, 1 to 10 and Luke 11, 47 to 54.
After reading
today’s first reading again and again, I noticed three points that struck me
personally and coincidentally, they are about our identity. Who is a Christian?
Following this first reading, this is how St. Paul answers - a Christian is:
1. A
person who is blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
2. A
person chosen in Christ to be holy and blameless.
3. A
person destined in love to be united to God in the fullness of time.
Dear
friends, St. Paul is telling us today that we are special. The mark of Christ
in us which we received on the day of our baptism has already made us God’s
chosen elect. As a Christian, you are different. You are not like everybody
else. You have been chosen for holiness.
Holiness
simply means “set apart”. To be holy is to operate on a different style of thinking
from that of the world. You have what it takes to live a blameless life if you
choose to. Because you have the Spirit of God living inside you, your body is
not just ordinary, it is the temple of the Holy Spirit; therefore, you have power
over your flesh and its desires.
Since I
was born, I have never seen a child of the President begging for food in the
street. This can only happen when the child in question does not know who his/her
father is. And I bet, the day such a child would know, that would be the the
day he/she would stop begging.
At times,
we Christians live like paupers spiritually when there is so much abundance
around us. The fruits of the Holy Spirits are so much in a short supply in our
lives when we have the Holy Spirit living right inside us. Scarcely do we
emanate virtues like bright lamps shining in a dark world. We are living in sin
when we have every potential to live holy and blameless lives.
We defeat ourselves
by assuming holiness of life is difficult. So because we tried and failed in
the past, we stopped trying. We stopped making efforts to be different. Dear
friend, it is not too late. Do you know all your spiritual potentials? Have you
tried withdrawing money from your bank of spiritual blessing? Do you really
know to what extent you are capable of doing good? We need to stop focusing on
our weakness and explore the rich depth of goodness that is inside of us.
Jesus is
not happy with the Pharisees because they left their duty and became stumbling
blocks for people who wanted to draw close to God. For us who are ministers of
the word and sacraments, Jesus’ stern condemnation of these religious leaders
should give us room to examine our consciences. When people draw close to us,
are they drawn to repentance and personal holiness or do they become more scandalized?
Are we living up to our full potentials are lights for the world or we are busy
pushing people further away from God?
Let us
pray:
Lord
Jesus, cleanse me from inside out that I may live by the Spirit. Amen.
Be Happy.
Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you.
Fr. Abu
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