May the Lord bless you with peace in the Holy Spirit. It is 17th October 2023. We reflect on Romans 1:16-25 and the Gospel of Luke 11:37-41. We celebrate the memorial of St Ignatius of Antioch, bishop. “Doctor of Unity” He wrote: “Love one another with an undivided heart. Let my spirit be sanctified by yours, not only now, but also when I shall attain to God…. In [Jesus Christ] may you be found unblemished” .
Our inner purity is the criterion for a profound relationship with God.
Without faith, no one can be saved. It is the necessary condition for our salvation. Having known, heard, and seen the works of God in and around our life, we are inspired over and over to trust God. It is childlike confidence that God cares and loves us as we are, and faith is infused into our hearts.
Our faith in God is enriched and fulfilled in Jesus, the Only Son of God. “Know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So, we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in[a] Christ and not by the works of the law because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” (Gal.2:16).
Forgetting God intentionally, wilfully, and knowingly is a sin. It is when we forget God conveniently, we are haunted by evil and the thirst for lust. It is a vicious circle in which every human is pulled as soon as one denies, refuses, and acknowledge the presence of God in their life.
Unstoppable, and addictive lustful pleasures are signs and symptoms, we have a deeper issue in believing God. Most of us worshipping, adoring, believing the created things, and forgetting or not prioritizing God in our life. “Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Rom.1:25).
We tend to give importance to the appearance, surface, peripheral and observable. But the Truth resides in the depth and unseen presence and acts of God. Just like the Pharisees in today’s Gospel, we spend all our life for beautifying the outside and leaving the inside invaded by sin, lust, greed, and selfishness. The confession of St. Paul enhances our belief too: “What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.” (Phil.3:8).
Almsgiving and charity cleanse our inside clean. May the Lord help us to trust in everything we do and say so that we become charitable to others. God bless you.