In His Son

And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever possesses the Son has life; whoever does not possess the Son of God does not have life. 1 John 5:11-12

Now there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where he was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, "Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean." Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, "I do will it. Be made clean." And the leprosy left him immediately. Luke 5:12-13

Piety

Father, hear my pleas for help. Jesus, touch me and make me clean. Holy Spirit, guide me to share eternal life in the Son. Amen.

Study

Jesus hears us. Jesus responds to us. Jesus prays for us. It is a simple pattern but it is a pattern repeated over and over again in the New Testament. It is love to the power of perfection.

Luke calls it merciful. Matthew calls it perfection. “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:30)

Perfect love is what we seek in those we love. We want those we love to hear our pain and our pleas for help. We want them to respond. We want them to love us. We want them to talk with us. We want them to hand around us. That is what friends do.

Sorry to break this news to Forrest, Forrest Gump…but life in the love of the Lord is not a surprising box of chocolates. You can look at every evangelist and every story, miracle, healing or sign. Jesus hears. Jesus responds. Jesus prays.

The Roman centurion needs his daughter healed? Jesus hears, responds and prays.

Ten lepers seek cleansing? Jesus hears, responds and prays.

Lazarus lies dead in the grave? Jesus hears, responds and prays.

There are no surprises when we fully rely on God. The surprises come when we rely upon someone or something else other than God.

Action

Scripture asks us to love perfectly. We can learn how to do that when we hang out with God in the scriptures. We can learn how to do that when we hear what God is speaking to us. We can learn how to do that when we respond to God. We can learn how to do that when we speak to God about our problems.

Are we ready to reciprocate for the Lord like the man cured of his leprosy? Are we ready to take three simple steps:

1) Listen to the Lord. He speaks to us every day through sacred scripture and through our sisters and brothers.
2) Respond to the Lord. By being attentive at all moments to God, we can listen with the ear of our heart and be ready to spring into action.
3) Pray unceasingly.

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.