Today’s Gospel Text: "And I tell you, every one
who acknowledges me before men, the Son of man also will acknowledge before the
angels of God; 9 but he who denies me before men
will be denied before the angels of God. 10 And every one who speaks a word
against the Son of man will be forgiven; but he who blasphemes against the Holy
Spirit will not be forgiven. 11 And when they bring you before
the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious how or
what you are to answer or what you are to say; 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach
you in that very hour what you ought to say." Luke
12:8-12
Reflection: Christ
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except
through Him (Jn. 14: 6)
The
above is a revelation of love by Jesus to the world. He loves us and hence he
died for us on the cross while revealing to us the necessity of believing in
him.
If
we do not believe in him then we are believing in the many falsities that exist
and are constantly proclaimed in and around us by our education, media and
the people we interact with in daily lives.
Besides these factors we are also
inspired by the dark world of the evil one and hence create our philosophies
and world view with the assistance of the evil one.
No
one who denies Jesus can claim that they are free from the evil influences of the evil one and
yet be true to their word; that they are independent and do not believe in him.(cfr. 1 Jn. 2: 22-23)
Such
is the nature of the belief system which clearly shows that not to believe in
Jesus is to believe in either self or others, which ultimately includes
believing in the lies of the evil one.
When
we believe in Jesus, we primarily believe in the truth of God as revealed by Jesus and this truth is
able to save us.
Hence,
he who believes in Jesus or claims to believe in Jesus cannot deny Jesus and
his salvific mission of love to mankind.
Not
to acknowledge him before men means not to participate in this mission of love
of Jesus. At the same time it means to promote the mission of the devil and his
lies. It means a failure to tell our human enemy that God still loves them and he can
save them only through his Son Jesus.
No
saints or angels can be an instrument of this Salvation which Jesus offers if
they have not acknowledged Jesus before men. They are saints because of this
role they have played in acknowledging him before men.
Prayer: Lord,
help me realize that not to acknowledge you before men means to promote and
proclaim a lie that leads to eternal damnation.
DD = Dedicated
Discipleship: Come grow
in the Lord with us
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