Faith Without Works is Dead

May 16, 2008

Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Do you want proof, you ignoramus, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by the works. James 2:20-22

"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it. Mark 8:34-35

Piety

Secularism

An Easy Essay by Peter Maurin

When religion has nothing to do with education, education is only information, plenty of facts and no understanding.
When religion has nothing to do with politics, politics is only factionalism—“Let’s turn the rascals out so our good friends can get in.”
When religion has nothing to do with business, business is only commercialism.
And when religion has nothing to do with either education, politics or business,
you have the religion of business taking the place of the business of religion.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/051608.shtml

Are you ready for some football?

Are you ready to rummm-ble??

Are you ready for Full Contact, Ultimate, Love-Your-Enemy Uncaged Christianity?

If Jesus has an advertising agency or a public relations staff in the 21^st century, that is what he could very well be asking us today.

If you are ready to answer, “Yes,” then the other part of his message for us today may serve like the Surgeon General’s Warning on the box of cigarettes or what we might call the Savior’s Warning. “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the sake of the gospel will save it.”

If you try Christianity and continue on the path to authentic discipleship and total commitment, you will meet up with radical self-renunciation and acceptance of the cross of untold suffering, even to the point of death itself. Jesus is making an all-out declaration of the ambivalence of life in our world and in our self-indulgent, get-ahead-quick, stay ahead of the Jones’ popular culture. He contrasts that with what some might see as a bleak picture. Life seen as mere self-centered earthly existence and lived in denial of Christ ends in destruction, but when lived in loyalty to Christ, and in service to our neighbors, despite earthly death, it arrives at fullness of life. As Frank McCleskey would remind us, “He never promised that it would be easy. He only promised that it would be worth it.”

Jesus and James underscore that authentic discipleship involves not only a faith commitment, but also an action component. The passage from James formed the foundation of my Cursillo table back on the 104^th Men’s Cursillo at Missionhurst. We dubbed our group reunion table “Faith and Action” or, in a nod to Cursillo’s Spanish roots, “Fe en la acción.”

Action

Pull out your Cursillo notebook today and review whatever you jotted down during the piety, study and action talks. Contact your table mates this weekend. Maybe you can plan a table reunion at the Lay Director Investiture Mass & Reception on May 24.

Carlos? Jerry? Can you be there?