Are you Saved?
What does that even mean? If you are asking me – am I choosing Heaven or Hell, I’ll choose Heaven every time. Who wouldn’t? If you are asking me – Do I know Jesus? Has he changed my life? Am I walking with Him, and letting him transform me into his likeness every day of my life? I would say – some days better than others.
The truth is, being a Christian is multifaceted. On the one hand, there is the joy of knowing I am loved, no matter what. It means that I am no longer an individual because that person died at Baptism, and I was raised into something greater – the Body of Christ. It means having supernatural gifts that should be used for lifting up the body of Christ. It means proclaiming the Good News.
On the other hand, it is about crosses and rejection and humiliation. Do I love him enough to accept it? Am I running from this every day because culture permits it or because I am not willing to open my eyes and see?
Does my faith life look more like Mother Theresa’s or like a non-believers? I imagine that some days we look like one or the other, and I don’t have a consistent trend in one direction or the other.
For some of you, this might be a hard message. I know it is for me. I want to be liked. I want to fit in. I don’t want to go against the grain. At the same time, God loves me so much that he takes me where I am. If I can take large strides towards living more like Mother Theresa, he will open those doors. If I am only willing to stand in place, he will lovingly stand with me until I am ready. If I fall back into bad habits, he is there with me. Every day is the start of a journey with a God who loves you more than you can ever imagine. He is there, waiting for us to put down the things that distract us.
God, we thank you and praise you for your mercy and your love. We ask you to show us how to enter more deeply into your transforming love today, and every day. Help us to overcome our fear and our temporal desires. Give us this day a sense of what waits for us when we go deeper in this journey. Give us consolations when we need it. Help us to trust in faith when you, in your wisdom, keep us from experiencing consolation. It is in the name of your Son, Jesus, that we pray. Amen.
