Wednesday, January 08, 2020

“Conquered by Faith” by Beth DeCristofaro


“Conquered by Faith” by Beth DeCristofaro


If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen … For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. (1 John 4:20, 5:3-4)

(Jesus) stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. (Luke 4:16-19)

Piety


Study
In the notes to the Gospel, we read, “Our love is grounded in the confession of Jesus as the Son of God and the example of God’s love for us. The Christian life is founded on the knowledge of God as love and on his continuing presence that relieves us from fear of judgment (1 Jn 4:16–18). What Christ is gives us confidence, even as we live and love in this world. Yet Christian love is not abstract but lived in the concrete manner of love for one another.”[i] Jesus knows this isn’t an easy concept to grasp nor to live.  In yesterday’s Gospel, the disciples did not grasp Jesus’ presence nor power over the storm threatening to swamp them.  The Gospel states They had not understood the incident of the loaves. On the contrary, their hearts were hardened. (Mark 6:52)

And yet, for sure, Jesus’ disciples were law-abiding, commandment-following men, faithful to the Law of Moses. What they had trouble with, and many of us have difficulty with today, is that Jesus wants us to follow the law written upon our hearts, his presence fulfilled by our thoughts, desires, and actions.  This law, as Jesus said, is the greatest: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:30-31) Again and again, we hear that our hearts must be softened so that we carry and convey, in graced confidence, the love of God into our world. 

With hearts softened in God-presence, we will not only not want to kill but will seek to be kind.  We will not covet what belongs to others because we will be contented in our relationship with Jesus.  We will be suffused with truth instead of the need to lie about others.  Honoring our parents or indeed, others will be a privilege on our part.  And it will be a joy to keep holy the Sabbath, keeping God always before our eyes, within the hand extended to others, joyfully keeping company in our “concrete manner of love for one another.”

Action
Jesus’ reading for Isaiah tells us clearly how to love him by loving those most in need of his (and our) love.  Which of these people do I have the most trouble loving?  Those blind to the needs of others?  Those oppressed by poverty and unemployment standing on the street with a sign?  Those tyrannized by their own need for power and prestige who dominate others?  The list may be long indeed, but the inexhaustible power of God is there for us to learn first not to hate and then, indeed, to love.  I ask for God to soften my heart.

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