Tag: <span>victory</span>

May 4, 2021April 20, 2021

Peace

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

In today’s gospel, Jesus tells His disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give it to you.”

And the incredible power of that peace is what comes through in the first reading. Because of the explosion of the faith and the numbers of new converts around the time of Pentecost, we can falsely perceive that the faith spread easily in apostolic times, like fire across dry grass. Conversely, St. Paul compares the experience of birthing the faith in His audience to labor pains (cf. Gal. 4:19). Resistance to the Gospel, among Jewish and pagan leaders alike, is impossibly intense, and even where the Apostles are successful, the communities that form are not huge.

And yet, after being stoned and left for dead, St. Paul and his companions rejoice. The travel a wide circuit, and then return to the very location where the stoning occurred. They gather the Christian community together there and recount all the wonders that God has done.

It is not about a lack of hardship, or sheer numbers, that they are rejoicing. Their joy harkens back to Christ’s promise: “My peace I give you. Not as the world gives to I give it to you.” With their hearts united to their Master’s through the Holy Spirit, they see that through their fulfillment of His will, He is reaching those whom He has chosen, those who are prepared to receive His saving message. His will, the will of the sovereign Creator, is being accomplished, and this is enough to bring them great peace.

Is it enough for us to have peace as well? If not, the answer no doubt lies in drawing still closer to His Heart in our daily encounter with Him.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to reveal to you the peace He wants to bring to your heart. Ask Him to remove the obstacles of attachment to your own will and any priorities that do not align to His, through a powerful indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Follow the Author on Twitter:
Follow @mvhaywilliams

April 15, 2021March 29, 2021

Awakening

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

The Sanhedrin, the religious leaders of Israel in Jesus’ time, appear formidable and daunting in the Gospel. We know that the path of Jesus’ public life ultimately leads Him to Calvary, and the Pharisees are ever present, looming, as they draw nearer and nearer to their goal of putting Him to death.

This is daunting for good reason. It involves the death of God Himself, God made man.

Why is it, then, that that very same Sanhedrin seems so puny and silly when we read about it in the book of Acts? Why do they seem so harmless, when we consider that ultimately, the apostles whom they are threatening will in fact suffer the death of martyrs?

The truth is, once we see them in Acts, they have done their worst; they have crucified God in the bloodiest manner, and God has turned their worst into glorious victory through the Resurrection. The apostles are addressing them, filled with the Holy Spirit, against the backdrop of proven victory. Yes, leaders, you killed this Jesus, but through the death He suffered at your hands, and through His Resurrection, He has reopened the door to eternal life.

Do with us what you will; if God is with us, who can be against us (as St. Paul will later write–cf. Rm. 8:11)?

Our own life is the very same; it is no different from that of the apostles. The world has thrown everything it has against Christ and the saints; they have invariably turned it into victory for those souls willing to take His path. This is the backdrop of victory against which we live our lives.

The great work of our lives is simply to awaken: To awaken to the gift we have in our hands, to awaken each day more, and to shed each day more the beleaguering burden of slavery to a legacy of sin which no longer holds any right over us. If God is with us, who can be against us?

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: In today’s gospel, Jesus assures us that God “does not ration His gift of the Spirit.” Be bold in your request to Jesus. Ask Him for the gift of His Spirit in an unfair allotment, until you are as full of the Holy Spirit as the apostles just after Pentecost. Ask Him to send you His Holy Spirit to crowd out any lingering sense of your subordination to the tyranny of sin.

Follow the Author on Twitter:
Follow @mvhaywilliams

November 25, 2020November 10, 2020

Battle-Weary but Faithful

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

We may grow weary of truths about the reality in which we live, as God sees it, and of pointing them out. Like the prophet Jeremiah, we may be tempted to say, “I will not mention him, I will no longer speak in his name.” (Jer. 20:9)

One such truth: Life on earth is a spiritual battle, pure and simple. A bloody, filthy, painful, life-and-death battle. Scripture is replete with this message on nearly every page. In today’s first reading from Revelation, John talks about those who have made it through the battle, victorious. Those who have come through even as humanity by and large has destroyed itself.

It would be so much nicer if the world could skate successfully upon the thin ice of superficial politeness and kindnesses. The truth that a profound battle is underway is an inconvenient one.

In the gospel, though, Jesus reminds us that the terrible rejections and persecutions we will endure because of our faithfulness to Him shall not destroy us. This is the beauty of His saving act: If we remain faithful to Him in the breach, victory truly shall be ours.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Meditate on the many martyrdoms that Christians have undergone since Christ’s prophecy in today’s gospel: The first 33 Popes were martyred, along with great portions of the Christian flock in ancient Rome. And the martyrdom of Christians has continued in age after age right up to our day, when many in the Middle East and Africa are killed because of their faith. Ask Jesus to help you to be strong in all circumstances, but especially in whatever difficulties today shall bring. Ask Him to help you to be faithful to Him no matter what life throws at you.

Follow the Author on Twitter:
Follow @mvhaywilliams

September 14, 2020August 28, 2020

The Power and the Glory

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Today again we see magnificent wisdom on the part of the Church in its selection of the readings for this feast.

There is something unexpected about today’s feast. It is the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, also known as the Triumph of the Holy Cross. It is not called the Triumph of the Resurrection, but of the Cross.

The second reading is one of the most beautiful passages in all of Scripture, perhaps because St. Paul himself is clearly so moved by the degree of Christ’s gratuitous willingness to undergo slavery, abasement and death to free us from our sins. In harmony with the glorifying action of God the Father, St. Paul exalts joyfully in the greatness and glory of such a Savior.

The Gospel passage recalls the first reading, where at God’s command, Moses lifts up the image of a saraph serpent, and the Israelites are cured of their snakebites, which are the result of their sin against God. Interestingly, it is the image not of something holy, but of the serpent–the fruit of their sin–that is used to bring about their healing.

So it is with the Holy Cross: It is God crucified, the horrible fruit of our sin, that heals us from that sin. “For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”

It is not the Resurrection on its own that we venerate, forgetting about the Cross like some sort of unpleasant necessary evil that is best not talked about. Rather, the glorious, triumphant light of the Resurrection shines on and exalts the Cross as the culminating act of all history: The moment when God Himself in flesh performs the greatest act of love ever witnessed, sacrificing His life out of love that “the world might be saved through Him.” The Cross is the moment of Jesus Christ’s great power, when He wins victory over sin and death.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Contemplate a crucifix. Imagine the glorious light of the Resurrection shining on it. Tell Jesus that you adore Him right there, at that moment, on the Cross, and you believe in the power of His sacrifice. Tell Him that you embrace the way of the Cross, of sacrificial love, for your own life as well, with all your heart.

Follow the Author on Twitter:
Follow @mvhaywilliams