If you do not believe April 4

Prayer

Jesus, Madison Avenue would have us believe that we are what we eat, what we build and what we buy. We binge on Big Lots, Big Macs, unleaded regular, and Calvin Klein – Dove bars, Reeboks, Hummers and Swatches. Then the alcohol and drugs come along to dull whatever senses we have remaining.

Help us to resist the magnetic pulls of the consumer society that form and inform us. Help us to lose our self and gain faith and trust in you.

Jesus, let your light outshine the objects of this consumer society so that we can still believe in you and hear your word and witness your works above the clutter and clatter of the mass media that numbs us to the world around you and the gifts you freely give to us.

Give us a faith that leads to action in the love of our neighbors, our enemy and those who are the “least” among us, those who embody the body of Christ. Amen.

Study

God offers to us sacred scriptures for today to read, to study and to hear.
You are invited to study and reflect on today’s readings:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/040406.shtml

“For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” John 8:24

Faith. Trust. Belief. These are the themes reiterated in daily readings as we head toward Palm Sunday in this fifth week of Lent. Yesterday, we witnessed the example from Daniel about Susanna, who refused to sin even in the face of death. She trusted in the Lord wholeheartedly and was saved from the possible death penalty from those who falsely accused her.

Today, Jesus puts an emphatic underline on that. “Where I am going you cannot come” except through faith in Jesus' passion-resurrection. Faith alone will save you. “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me.” John 8

Trust in the Lord as exemplified by Peter, Paul and Mary. It’s a theme echoed from Isaiah to Romans and beyond.

Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps faith may enter in. Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusts in thee. Trust in the LORD for ever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock. (Isaiah 26: 2-4)

Indeed, if Abraham was justified on the basis of his works, he has reason to boast; but this was not so in the sight of God. For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” A worker's wage is credited not as a gift, but as something due. But when one does not work, yet believes in the one who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. So also David declares the blessedness of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. (Romans 4:2-6)

So, where does this leave the social justice tradition of the Church? Can we drop one leg of the Cursillo tripod?

No. The social justice tradition of the Catholic Church is alive and kicking because faith is the cornerstone upon which the House of Good Works is built. Just as the cornerstone is laid before the rest of the building is erected, faith must come first to distinguish the good works from the deeds of those without faith.

What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (James 2:14-17)

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14:12-15)

Piety alone, without helping the neighbor and fulfilling the commandment to actively love your neighbor and your enemy, is not the aim. Faith from Christ spurs us to act because our neighbor and our enemy are made in the image of God in whom we trust and put our faith. And this is revealed to us through our study. As we are “in-formed” in faith, we are shaped in study.

Action

What in-forms you? What shapes you? Your piety, study and action? Or are you shaped more by the television-obsessed consumer society? You don’t have to be ashamed to admit that it is hard to resist this barrage. According to the Newspaper Association of America Website:

Not too long ago, the average American was exposed to over three thousand advertising messages in the average day. Today, you get that many before breakfast! Everyone is trying to build a brand. This season, the networks have added one more minute of commercials per half-hour, and that is just the beginning. Have you seen the ads in golf holes (talk about hidden persuaders), in bathroom stalls, on grocery register receipts and even in the sand on the beach?[1]

Do you hear more about David Letterman’s Top Ten List than Moses’ Ten Commandments? If so, then you can practice “selective exposure.” Take control of the media messages that you hear. You can take the initiative and reduce the clutter and clatter.

Load a tape or CD with Christian music into your car, Walkman or I-Pod. Listen to it rather than Imus or Stern or Hannity or Combs.

Turn off the TV – your mother called it the boob tube for a reason. If you can’t turn it off, put in a good movie…something like The Spitfiore Grill or Entertaining Angels.

Pick up a book. Try a Jon Hassler novel like North of Hope. “Though not overtly religious, many of Hassler's finely crafted novels portray Roman Catholic culture with an evenhandedness rarely found in more cynical modern writing. By his own admission, however, Hassler didn't start out trying to be a Catholic writer. ‘It surprised me how much Church there is in my books....It's with me, I guess.’ ” [2]

[1] http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=56750
[2] http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Nov1998/feature2.asp#F1