This week the first reading is from the book of Isaiah and we are given a foreshadowing of Christ’s passion.  When Jesus, in the Gospel narrative, asked who people think he is, and the answers are “the Messiah, the Christ” Jesus has identified himself as the one of whom Isaiah spoke, the suffering servant. 

We are called today to express our faith in Christ.  It is not enough to say we believe in Christ without accepting his cross, without accepting his most important commandment to “love one another as I have loved you.”  It is not enough to say you have faith without proving that faith through your works, your deeds.  As James says in his letter about faith and works, “For example, if a brother or a sister doesn’t have clothes or enough food to eat, it’s not enough just to say, ‘Good luck to you!  I hope you are warm enough, and I hope you find enough food to eat.’”  Proclaiming your belief in Christ Jesus, who he is, that he died for our sin, that he rose again and by that one true and miraculous action proclaimed victory over death to show us the way to eternal life through him but to not fulfill his one great commandment instead doing nothing to help others in need, even if you have great empathy in your heart, is equal to no faith because we do not prove our faith through our actions.

Jesus proved his faith in God by doing exactly what God asked him to do, even dying on a cross.  Jesus has not asked you to die on a cross, but he has asked that you take up YOUR cross and follow Him.  To follow Jesus means we follow his example and that includes works of mercy and kindness and love for others.  God, as always, proved himself to be most trustworthy when Jesus was raised from the dead, fulfilling the promise of long ago.  In the Psalm today Jesus gives thanks that God has freed him from the cords of death.

So let us take up our cross, give to others and endure all our trials for His sake and the sake of the Gospel!  Let us make our lives an offering of thanksgiving for the new life he has given us until we walk before the Lord in the land of the living!

Psalm 114:  I Will Walk Before The Lord In the Land of the Living

Have a blessed week! Go out and do unto someone something nice!