BUILDING OUR FAITH IN THE RISEN LORD


MONDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTER

Act 14:5-18; Ps 115:1-4,15-16; Jn 14:21-26

Defended by the Resurrection of the Lord

Our faith in the resurrection of the Son of Man is the hallmark of the Christian people and the source of our spiritual life. The resurrection of Jesus Christ proved three things. The first is that he is the Just One. The second is that he is the Son of God. The third is that the Father has forgiven our sins through his sacrificial death. The faith justifies us and enables us to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Paul’s experience of the risen Lord consolidated his Christian faith and established a firm foundation for the mission the Lord called him to fulfil. We must build up our faith in the resurrection of the Son of Man, for the strength of our faith in the resurrection of the Lord would determine the height of the Christian life we can support. Without a solid foundation, God cannot erect a solid Christian life on us. There is very little the Lord can achieve on a fickle and weak faith in the resurrection. To build up our faith in the resurrection, we must apply it in our daily living, doing everything with the mindset of heaven.  

The weakness is not of the Lord but determined by our cooperation with the gift of his graces. When hardship, suffering, and persecution come our way, which are to consolidate our foundation in Jesus Christ, a weak faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and subsequent doubt in his abiding presence will make us chicken out and flee his company and disobey his will, which is the will of the Father for us. Our Lord teaches this in the gospel, on the necessity of loving him and keeping his commandment of love. “Anyone who receives my commandments and keeps them will be one who loves me; and anybody who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and show myself to him.” The constant keeping of the company of the risen Lord makes us grow in his love and the keeping of his commandments. Saint Paul took three years to be with the risen Lord in the wilderness of Arabia to consolidate his faith and love for the risen Lord he encountered on the way to Damascus. Our faith can never grow without this constant communion with the risen Lord. Since his resurrection caused our reception of faith from the Father, only our communion with him can grow and consolidate it for the work of evangelisation God calls us to do. “Those who do not love me do not keep my words. And my word is not my own: it is the word of the one who sent.” The word of God is the same as his presence.

Keeping the word of God grows our familiarity with the Holy Spirit and the things of spiritual life. The gift of the Holy Spirit is to guide and encourage this familiarity with the risen Lord and understand the mission of preaching the Good News. Hence, we know the source of Saints Paul and Barnabas’ constancy and consistency in their mission of preaching the Good News. “Eventually with the connivance of the authorities, a move was made by pagans as well as Jews to make attacks on the apostles and to stone them. When the apostles came to hear of this, they went off for safety to Lycaonia where, in the towns of Lystra and Derbe and the surrounding country, they preached the Good News.” The two apostles understood the constant presence of the risen Lord with them and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who works with them for the mission. So they were not disturbed by the hardships or persecutions that come their way. We must learn from them to consolidate our faith in the resurrection of the Son of Man, which is his glorification by the Father. As the risen and glorified Lord, he defends us from every adversity while transforming us into a temple fit for his Father. “Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give the glory and for the sake of your love and your truth, lest the heathen say: ‘Where is their God?’”

Let us pray: May your right hand, O Lord, we pray, encompass your family with perpetual help, so that, defended from all wickedness by the Resurrection of your Only Begotten Son, we may make our way by means of your heavenly gifts. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.  

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