Jun 21 Sun
Should I manifest my faith before my friends?
We must manifest our faith in Christ with deeds, aware that, even if our miseries are abundant, even greater is God's grace.
Yet the Lord warned the apostles that when they carry out Christ’s mission to spread the Gospel, they will find opposition.
Christ instructed them not to be afraid of anyone. The most persecutors can do is kill the body; they “cannot kill the soul.”
“The Lord is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph."
God the Father and the Son greatly love us, Christian apostles. This gives us reason to be courageous.
Thus, we should never be afraid of “acknowledging” Christ before others, that is, proclaiming the truth, especially the truth of the Gospel.
However, we should be very afraid of denying Christ before others, because that could mean the death of both the body and the soul in hell. We have an obligation in justice to bear witness to the truth, come what may.
Just as Christ came into the world to “bear witness to the truth,” we too must profess the truth directly and clearly, “without equivocation.”
This witness to the Gospel must be given “in words and deeds.” Witness is an act of justice that makes the truth known.
When we testify to the truth, either through our words or our actions, others respond not just because of our testimony but because the truth resounds within them. This double testimony arouses in them either their acceptance or rejection. The rejection of the truth may arouse their wrath.
“You want to follow in Christ’s footsteps, to wear his insignia, to identify yourself with Jesus. Well then, make your faith a living faith, full of sacrifice and deeds of service, and get rid of everything that stands in the way."
Look at our culture and environment and ask yourself, “Are people demanding that I deny or at least keep silent about some aspect of truth?”
Each of us must answer this question ourselves, because the answers may vary in different places.
It is also important that we discern when to be silent and when to speak.
We are entering a time in which enemies of God and of humanity are demanding complete agreement with their twisted notions. Their catchy phrase “silence is violence” is a way either to force people’s agreement through fear of the dire consequences they can inflict or to expose and punish those who disagree with them.
The fact that we are children of God, that God is our Father, must be the solid foundation of our spiritual life and our apostolic action.
“To transmit the faith, people need to meet a friend who expresses the joy of the Christian faith and the coherence of a Gospel manifested in his way of life.
Pope Leo said. “It is certainly not by watering down the content or softening the demands that Christianity can be made attractive, but by bearing witness with humility and courage to ‘the way, the truth and the life’ that has converted and sanctified so many people.”