Many come to Jesus and profess their faith to him but fail to hold on to the faith. They are like the seeds in the parable that fall on ground that cannot sustain life for long and the plant dies.
When we first hear the good news and understand maybe for the first time the live God has for us. It’s exciting stuff. It’s filled with hope and love and peace and unity and belonging. Something all people want. The community of welcome that surrounds us and the excitement of saying yes to Jesus for the fist time is awesome. At my adult baptism and my later conversion to Catholicism they are two major moments in my life. Like choreographed steps had been planned and we realize things have changed.
Adult conversion requires thought and meditation and the first steps to realizing we are not the master of our life, but God is. At the same time, we realize probably for the first time that God is about relationship and priority.
If we believe God is the creator and the most “real” thing in our life we as adults must conclude we desperately need a relationship with him. Above all people and above all things. He is the creator of all. Jesus Christ was clear through his ministry. We approach God as children. Humble and trusting. And we must grow to love God above all else and love other people as we love ourselves. These are not negotiable.
So, we start our new life in Christ and if we are smart we realize we must spend as much effort and time on developing that relationship and learning more about God just as we would work or interests we have. After all work and hobbies are temporary. God is forever and our relationship with him must be pursued as all relationships have to be.
And hopefully we grow in faith and love, and our world makes a lot more sense with God as the center since he made the world and he made us in his image.
Think about that for a moment. There is an explanation of what that means in social media where one explains what this means.
They say we are like a pair of gloves. Gloves are great tools and very useful. They are made in the shape and likeness of a hand. But a glove alone without a hand in it has no value. It serves no purpose. It is not existing for what it was made to do. It’s only with a hand inside that it functions as it should for the purpose it was made. And everything seems to make sense. That is what it’s like to have God inside of your heart and the spirit living inside you.
It doesn’t take away life’s struggles but with God we begin to realize he is always with us and will come to our aid. He gives us what we need and his presence in our life makes everything sweeter and richer.
The fact is we were born with a purpose in Gods plan to build the kingdom of God. Each of us. We were put here for a very specific purpose and work as a child of God. When we don’t live our life God wants for us, there is always a hole inside of us saying something is amiss or missing. When we realize who was missing and start living following the teachings of Jesus, we start finally on our way to living the life and mission God had planned, and a whole layer of stress and doubt and questioning stops.
Today, Jesus says don’t let anything or anyone stop you from holding onto your faith until the end. For many will turn away that started our strong. But you and I need to remember our identity and value and worth is not our reflection against this world but a reflection of being loved more than we can imagine by God. For who we are right now. Sins and all. We are loved by the greatest person in the universe. Any other admiration pales against his love. Stay the course. Pray for help to God. And when worries creep in or doubt ask Mary to speak to her Son on your behalf. For he came into this world through Mary, and we can also come to him through her. For Jesus gave Mary to us to be our mother always and she wants the best for her children.
Deacon Tony Pynes 
Leave a comment