Would we put our llives on the line to follow Jesus?

Thursday, 9/1/16

Our Gospel says that those four young fishermen: Simon, Andrew. James and John “left everything and followed” Jesus.

When World War II was coming on, and we were hearing stories of the Nazis gassing millions of Jewish people, our young men wanted to get in there to fight for what is right.

Johnny Buchar was a year ahead of me in our Catholic Grade School, and he got into a company of boys coming down in gliders, ready to fight.  At one of our parish dances Johnny was most proud of his uniform. The Germans shot him as his crew were gliding into the front.

Berry Albright from down the street from me was amazing at gymnastics, but it didn’t save him from the North Korean gunners.

 Those two died, but hundreds of other guys we knew put their lives on the line for what is right. Are we prepared to leave everything, and follow Jesus?  

Luke portrays the public life of Jesus in two parts.

Wednesday, 8/31/16

In Luke’s Gospel the public life of Jesus begins with this week’s readings from his Chapter Four, when Jesus preached in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Luke shows the public life of Jesus as breaking into two parts. From this Chapter Four through Chapter Nine, Luke relates all the miracles by which Jesus showed himself to be the true Savior. This account begins with Jesus driving out demons by his simple word, and by the demons declaring him to be the chosen one of God.

The next four chapters recount the miracles by which Jesus convinced his disciples that he was the Messiah. Then, this first half of the Gospel concludes with Peter confessing. “You are the Messiah of God.”

Having convinced his followers that he is the Savior, in the second half of his Gospel. Luke has Jesus showing us that the way he will save us was by his suffering; and to be his followers we will need to accept suffering too.      

God shares his use of intelligent thinking with us.

Tuesday, 8/30/16

In our first reading, St. Paul spoke about the Spirit of God. We must prayer over  what Paul’s words meant when he said, “The Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God. And, “Among men , who knows what pertains to the man except the Spirit that is within.”   

I connect that with verse four of Chapter One of John’s Gospel where John wrote, “His life is the light of the human race.”

I see the Life and the Spirit as the same thing. They are God’s intelligent thinking. Our light that comes from the Life is our human thought.  

Those verses make me happy in that God shares the power of thinking with us. We don’t own that power. It leaves us when we sleep or die.