Keeping The Faith

September 22: Monday of Week 25 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:Proverbs 3:27-34; Psalm 15:2-3, 3-4, 5; Luke 8:16-18

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship? (To support Reaching Jesus: 5 Steps to a Fuller Life ... Step Five).

“No one who lights a lamp conceals it” (Luke 8:16).

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At Baptism we received the gift of divine enlightenment. Before we were able to understand God’s truth in human thoughts or express it in human words, we received the gift of sharing divinely in God’s own act of knowing. This is the reality of the gift of Faith, which is one component of “grace,” the mystery of sharing in God’s own divine life.

In the Gospel, Jesus tells us God made this gift as an investment. He didn’t give it just for us. He put his light in us so that we might enlighten others. This is faithful stewardship. Peter wrote to the Church (1 Peter 4:10), “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.”

That is the paradox: if we just “keep” the Faith, we lose it. Like breathing: if we just take a breath and don’t let it out, we die.

Francis (Joy of the Gospel 39, 88) says: “Before all else, the Gospel invites us to respond to the God of love… and to go forth from ourselves to seek the good of others... True faith is inseparable from self-giving…” To “keep the Faith” we have to “keep faith” with God and the human race by sharing it with others.

PRAY: “Lord, let your light shine in me and through me.”

PRACTICE: Look at everything around you with eyes enlightened by faith.