Faith, alive!

Gospel Reflection

Jesus said to his disciples: "I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God.  But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God. Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven. When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. For the holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say."

- Luke 12:8-12

 

There was once a loyal dog and his master. The dog never leaves his master's company even if it meant that in places where he is not allowed to enter, he had to wait outside, sometimes for hours. One day, his master was rushed to the hospital, and since he was not allowed to enter, he waited outside the emergency room for days. He kept watch at the door, knowing that his master would not leave him and would actually come out of that building. He had faith on his master's love for him and rightly so, days after, two or three days after, his master came out, but it was no longer his master. Apparently his master died and, as an organ donor, he gave one of his organs to a dying patient, who was then able to recover. The dog recognized his master in the lady and with so much love, he went to the lady. He had faith that his master is in the lady, or at least part of him.

Faith in God, is the reason why God favored Abraham and as such he was made our father, the father of many nations. He never wavered from his trust in God, that God would fulfill his promise. He believed and he hoped against hope, for he knew that, as the psalmist would say, "The Lord remembers his covenant forever;" His covenant, which He "made binding for a thousand generations."

Faith in Christ, God's love made incarnate, will bring us to the new world, to God's kingdom, the new heaven and the new earth, as proclaimed by Christ himself.

But how should we live this faith? St. Luke relates that Jesus promised, "everyone who acknowledges me before others, the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God."

With all the pressure that we are facing today, especially in a diverse community where many faiths come together, it becomes very challenging to proclaim Christ and his message on the establishment of God's kingdom if one wants to be politically correct in his dealings. But then our proclamation of Christ need not be done in words.

Our faith should be like that of the dog. We should live it. We should allow it to permeate into our lives that our lives would become the living proclamation of God's kingdom. Our communities should be microcosms of God's kingdom.

At times what we expect to happen may not happen as we see or envision them, but we should approach each and every circumstance with faith, knowing that God's hands mark every situation we encounter.

Faith makes us who we are, it is faith in Christ, in his teachings, that we came to be, as Christians.

It is faith in God, faith in the future promised by God to Abraham, our father, which makes us continue to believe that heaven is real.

Heaven is real, and we could start turning it into a reality in the here and now by allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us, by allowing Him to use us, to make us into his mouthpiece in proclaiming God's kingdom by making our lives today a life that is in constant solidarity with the poor, oppressed, exploited, and marginalized.

And so, as we go about our day to day tasks, let us ask ourselves, how we can make our faith alive in our lives and in the life of others. ###

This reflection was delivered on 17 October 2015 (Saturday) on the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch at our community mass at the Teresa of Avila Oratory in Quezon City.