REJOICING IN GOD'S WORK OF SALVATION


FRIDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Phil 1:1-11; Ps 111:1-6; Lk 14:1-6

The Good Work of God on Us

The Scripture says that God created us to display his good works in us. Hence, it pleases God to bless us always. Paul revealed that these blessings were established before the foundation of the earth, and that they include all the spiritual blessings in heaven. The revelation of these heavenly blessings continues in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, if we keep opening ourselves to receive him. The totality of these heavenly blessings is found in Jesus Christ, for the Father willed everything to be full in him. He is the fullness of everything. So, in him we find our own fullness and fulfilment. Turning away from Christ ends our desire for these blessings. The attacks of the forces of darkness are aimed at this goal; namely, to turn us away from Jesus Christ. Thus, every means we employ to battle these forces must make us present and open to receive the Father’s will from Jesus Christ. As we noted yesterday, our spirits have a pure capacity to receive Jesus Christ. Our daily hunger must be for Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life. Nothing has value which does not lead us to his presence; and everything that leads us away from his presence is of the evil one. “I will thank the Lord with all my heart in the meeting of the just and their assembly. Great are the works of the Lord, to be pondered by all who love them.” The greatest of these works is in Christ.

Happy therefore are we who have found the way to fullness of life. We ought to rejoice in the gift God has given us, and with all Christians all over the world. This was the cause of Saint Paul’s joy and thanksgiving for the Philippians. “I thank my God whenever I think of you; and every time I pray for all of you, I pray with joy, remembering how you have helped to spread the Good News from the day you first heard it right up to the present. I am quite certain that the One who began this good work in you will see that it is finished when the Day of Christ Jesus comes.” To think of all who have embraced the Christian message is really a genuine cause of Christian joy. Though we understand that only God can bring about conversion of a soul, yet we do not spare anything within our power and resources to bring others to the knowledge of our awesome God. If this joy and enthusiasm are not in our hearts, then it is obviously because we have not come to understand our heavenly gifts in Christ. The lack of this understanding and joy opens us to spiritual attacks of the devil.

Paul described the Christian understanding and joy in our communion and commonwealth as natural, or characteristic of a true Christian soul. “It is only natural that I should feel like this towards you all, since you have shared the privileges which have been mine: both my chains and my work defending and establishing the gospel.” Our love for God, who reconciles us to himself in Jesus Christ, is our common inheritance, through the Holy Spirit who gives us new life in Christ. Unwillingness to love and embrace the divine will, and a closure to God’s love displayed in the salvation of souls, indicate the indwelling of evil in a soul. Hence, the Lord condemned the Pharisees and lawyers for closing their minds and hearts to God’s salvific works in souls. “There in front of him was a man with dropsy, and Jesus addressed the lawyers and Pharisees. ‘Is it against the law’ he asked ‘to cure a man on the sabbath, or not?’ But they remained silent, so he took the man and cured him and sent him away. Then he said to them, ‘Which of you here, if his son falls into a well, or his ox, will not pull him out on a sabbath day without hesitation?’” It is therefore God’s priority to pull us out of sin and diabolic oppressions. Thus, the joy we share in one another’s salvation in Jesus Christ is divine. We must continue to pray and work that the Christian message and eternal inheritance may reach everyone. This is the perfection of Christian charity in us. “This will help you to become pure and blameless, and prepare you for the Day of Christ, when you will reach the perfect goodness which Jesus Christ produces in us for the glory and praise of God.”

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, increase our faith, hope and charity, and make us love what you command, so that we may merit what you promise. 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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