Believe in the Light
March 11, 2008
: Jn 8:21-30
There was once a time when Catholic pulpits echoed with homilies and sermons that were filled with fire and brimstone. I mean there used to have much emphasis on sin and hell. Not any more. Now, we speak a lot about love and forgiveness. However, sometimes it is good for the health of our souls to remind ourselves that ultimately we all are sinners and if we do not make use of the opportunities that God continues to give us to turn toward him, we can end up in hell. At least today the church makes us hear this warning from Jesus. “For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sin”.
What does it mean? It is simple to say that it is because I believe in him that I am here in the church - and how can I die in sin? Friends, if we are not careful, we can easily become hypocrites. I mean we consider Jesus as someone who was there in the past. We can consider Jesus and his teachings as an ornament which we wear when we go to the church or prayer. Once we are out of the church we forget him and his message. Today, listen to him: “For if you do not believe that I AM”. He is not something of that past, or the future, he is ‘I am’; the one who is with us all the time, in each and every moment. Through the sacrament of Baptism we become the integral part of his body. What does it mean? My existence means the existence of Jesus. The existence of my brother means the existence of Jesus.
Many a time we forget this dimension of our life. We forget this responsibility that we have taken upon ourselves on the day of our baptism. And it is when we forget this reality that God is with us, it is then that we fall into sin. Friends, let us not consider Jesus or our religiousity as an ornament that we have to wear at some part of the day or life. May Jesus, may our faith, have total control over life and existence. Then as Jesus puts it in the gospel of today, “we will do nothing of our own but as He wants us to do”. May God bless us. Amen!
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