Keep His Commandments

April 22, 2012

Third Sunday of Easter 2012 B

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.  Now I know, brothers, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did; but God has thus brought to fulfillment what he had announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer.  Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away."  Acts 3:17-19

Those who say, "I know him," but do not keep his commandments are liars, and the truth is not in them.  But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him.  1 John 2:4-5a

"These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled."  Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.  Luke  24:44-45

Piety

Our piety looks at the wounds of Christ and sees love in its nth degree. What can separate us from the love of Christ? Love of Christ takes us to oneness with Christ. The sufferings of our love for Christ find meaning in our vision of the Cross. Piety brings us to love Christ so much that we would put up with anything to be closer to him. Love brings us to oneness with the beloved. We would share all that we have with one we truly loved. Christ has loved us with an everlasting love and how we respond to that love gives us life and is the life of our piety. It is our belief in the love of Christ in his sufferings that takes away the sting of whatever we might be asked to suffer for the name of Christ. Our conversion from sinfulness that gives life to our piety is our acceptance of his dying for us and our willingness to be his suffering to our world of today. There is no pain so little that cannot make us like Christ. The great saints rejoice that they have been found worthy to suffer for Christ. The face of Christ shines in our wounds for him. Christ brings security to our dwelling when we sleep in Christ. Christ is the expiation for our sins that unlocks the gates of heaven to us.

Study

We study the commandments of the Lord because they are the statements of perfect human relationship. Happiness comes from living the perfections of the commandments for and with each other. If the commandments did not exist and we wanted to be happy we would have had to invent them. The commandments give us the statement of what is needed in our lives if we wish human happiness. We study how to share Christ with one another because sharing Christ brings his presence into our lives. We study the wounds of Christ because his love is reflected in the wounds of our love for one another. We study the scriptures to discover how and why Christ had to suffer. Christ fulfilled the scriptures and was faithful to the plan of the father revealed in what the patriarchs and the prophets said about him. We study Christ to understand how forgiveness of sins is to be preached in his name to all the nations.

Action

We preach always by the style of our lives lived in Christ. He gives us the example that we make a living reflection of Christ by what we are willing to suffer in his name. We are the presence of Christ by the preaching we do in the good example of our lives. We make amends and atone for our mistakes by the ways we are willing to offer our lives for the sake of each other. The resurrection lives in the good we do for one another.