Deepening one’s faith

Saturday,
February 28, 2015
1st Week of Lent
1st Reading: Dt 26:16–19
Gospel: Mt 5:43–48

Jesus said to his disciples, “You have heard that it was said: Love your neighbor and do not do good to your enemy. But this I tell you: Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in Heaven.    “If you love those who love you, what is special about that? (…) For your part you shall be righteous and perfect in the way your heavenly Father is righteous and perfect.”

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)

There were many Rabbis interpreting Scriptures in Jesus’ time. But only Jesus’ interpretation was authoritative as far as the Will of the Heavenly Father was concerned. Only Jesus knew the Father so well. As the Bible tells us, “No one knows the Father, except the Son…” Thus in today’s Gospel reading he speaks with authority when he says “Be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect”.

Perfection is one big program of Christian life.  What a tall order! Can we really approximate the perfection of the Heavenly Father? The bottom line is that Jesus’ standard accepts no compromise. If we are aspiring to be citizens of heaven after our earthly sojourn, we have to “dress up” for heaven to be worthy of the mighty presence of God. For this St. Paul invites us to “put on the new man”.

The new man in the mind of St. Paul is one whose faith is alive. A dying faith has more power to scandalize than an absent faith. An atheist offending God, for example, does not shock us as much as a believer does. An atheist does not believe in God, in the first place, so nobody expects him to care about pleasing God. But one who professes faith in God but betrays the Great Commandment by making the lives of others miserable creates a big scandal.

Talking miserable lives we cannot avoid talking about our bitter experiences in religious schools. The problem with nuns running schools is that they become associated with the rigidity of institutional administration incompatible with the love commandment. A story is told of a pilot who announced to his passengers that one of the four engines of the aircraft was not functioning. There was panic. In an attempt to calm them down the pilot announced, “Only three of the four engines are working, but we have four nuns in this flight praying for our safety”. One woman shouted, “I’d rather have four engines and three nuns, than four nuns and three engines!”  Isn’t this attitude one of the big scandals of our times?

If faith is more dangerous when dead, making faith grow is a serious responsibility. Let’s start with this in our journey towards perfection in the likeness of our Heavenly Father.  –  Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: [email protected]. Website: www.frdan.org.