Gift- VIII: The Gift of the Redemptive Silence of Christianity
For the Book called: God For Dummies
Feast day of Saints Peter and Paul
Two keys in Christianity are:
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- Our silence is redemptive, but We preach the Word of the Gospel as the Good News for all creation that is in labor pain for Life in Jesus. Therefore Saint Paul tells us: “For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1Cor 9:16).What does this mean? It means that the Christians must be apostles by nature. The minute a Christian stops striving to be an apostle of Jesus, the Christian is in trouble and the master of the world will target the lives of Jesus’ friends and the innocent ones in the world. Consequently, if the gospel is not being preached, is not read every day at homes, our children do not know its content, people do not go to Church for Mass to hear and to do the Word and the Eucharistic prayer of the Lord, then we are entering into a disastrous and evil area. Then something else or another book comes and is being preached. Then a fake peace, and fake human love is being offered as a way to murder the Truth and the Life that is in the gospel. At this grave consequence, any other book but the gospel that is being preached cannot be good and cannot be life.Through the history of religions and in these last times, the world and Christians have seen other books being preached and none of them gave life to its abundance. None of them led to God and to the life in the Spirit, none of them contained the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, where eternal life is the reward of those who hear, and obey the word of God. On the contrary, some of these books brought condemnation and death to Christians and to all other innocent people on Earth. This is the effect of the Christian laziness and not being aware that we need to be and live like the apostles and preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.It is dangerous to be a Christian without the conscience and the behavior of an apostle. Indeed, When Christianity silences the gospel and lives making noise by praising or worshiping or honoring other “books”, Christianity introduces a foreign form to what CHRIST IS NOT. This could lead to a form of an anti-Christianity. Consequently, the faithful will be led to confusion and to the slaughter. “Like a sheep before shearers He was led to slaughter and did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).
- The Cross is central in our Faith, yet it is founded on the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. This is what Saint Paul tells us in his First Letter to the Corinthians: (1 Cor 15: 12- 19) “THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD — But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”
This past week, the Holy Church celebrated the Feast-days of Saints Peter and Paul, also known as the Princes of the apostles. The Church also celebrated the feast-day of the twelve apostles according to the Eastern Tradition, and the feast-day of the Early Church first martyrs of Rome, called the disciples of the apostles. These saints are the living symbol at the foundation of Christianity that Christianity is both proclaiming the Kingdom of God while it is led silently to the slaughter by the shearers like lambs. Our Faith, Hope and Love are in God as the Father of mankind, the Heavenly Father who is Just Judge and Holy.
On the other hand, the church people are still praying in devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in this month of June.
What does all of this mean? Christianity is the most hated religion in the world? This could be something to think about. Christ did lots of good things but still his people or at least the chiefs of them betrayed Him, delivered Him to be beaten up, to be spat upon, to be crucified, to be pierced with a lance, to die on the Cross. But HE ROSE ON THE THIRD DAY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.
Jesus’s stand in reaction to the wrong doing of his nation was: “Forgive them FATHER for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23: 34). This is where the heart of Jesus is defined as the Fountain of Eternal Mercy and Love. This is where Jesus shows to the world the ultimate alternative to all evil, by transforming an evil and violent act of murder to a holy sacrifice, a redeeming sacrifice. Consequently, Jesus, by forgiving, and by calling upon His Heavenly Father to forgive concluding with “It Is Done,” proves that He is the innocent Lamb of God, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of the World, and the gate to the Father’s forgiveness.
This last stand of Christ on the Cross defines the role, the Mission and the identity of each baptized Christian in the world. This by itself is a reason for the world to hate us, to persecute us, to kill us, to lead us before courts, synagogues, launching against us all false attacks, and by killing us they will think that they are doing something good.
The Cross in the life of Christians, if not associated with redemption, forgiveness, and faith in the Resurrection, is a curse and a sign that God put on all the Christians to be led to the slaughter both hopeless and unjustly. But the Cross, when taken by us Christians as the means of protection from evil, the sign of Victory over sin and death, the “exorcism Divine Weapon” of salvation from Satan and his army, and the mark of Eternal Life that was laid upon us at Baptism, then, and only then, becomes the light of the world, the salt of the Earth, and the Redeeming Weapon that God gave to his Children on Earth in order to extend the free Gift of Salvation to all Nations of the Earth.
Finally, remember that Christian silence is the revealer of the Will of God the Father that was once and for all spoken by Jesus on our behalf: “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him May have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.” (John 6: 40)
My children, let us all do the Will of the Father. Let our Silence be to shut the door of evil interception that comes to us in forms of gossip, hateful discussions, and confusion. Let that same silence be the statement of our Faith in the Word of the Living God, who conquered all evil and death. Silence is not only redemptive, but it is the sign of our ultimate obedience and trust in God’s Divine Plan of Salvation. Our Word must be our prayer, our Gospel proclamation, and all other things that praise God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Our words must be to Adore God, to build up the Holy Church, to save all souls, to forgive sinners, to deliver all from evil, and to lead all to Eternal Life.
Amen
Fr Andre Y Sebastian Mahanna
Pastor