<\/p>\n
Listen once more to these words from Acts:\u00a0 \u201cAnd God, who knows the heart, bore witness by granting them the Holy Spirit just as he did us.\u201d<\/p>\n
You know, all of us here bear a special gift- our Catholic Faith.\u00a0 That gift guarantees us the fullest revelation of God\u2019s message of His plan for mankind.\u00a0 So we are truly a chosen people.\u00a0 In that respect, we are no different from the Jews of Jesus time. They were the chosen people then by virtue of the writings and traditions of Moses and the prophets.\u00a0 Indeed, the Jews enjoyed the fullest revelation of God\u2019s plan for man up until the time of Jesus.<\/p>\n
But things changed, didn\u2019t they.\u00a0 Because Jesus came and delivered a different message- the Good News of the Gospel.\u00a0 Some of the Jews listened to that new message and the Christian Church was born.\u00a0 But the Jews brought with them all the baggage of thousands of years of tradition and scripture and the law.\u00a0 Now I want to be sure to emphasize that the Mosaic Law in all its detail was a good thing.\u00a0 It was, after all, God\u2019s word in as pure a form as mankind could express it at the time.\u00a0 So, the Jewish converts wanted everyone who believed in Jesus to carry that baggage as well because they had their sights on complying with the letter of the law revealed by God over time, just as they had always done.<\/p>\n
Our readings today set the record straight.\u00a0 We would do well to listen to the essence of the message, because we find ourselves privileged as the chosen people bound by many Church laws and precepts.\u00a0 And the Church rightly teaches that a true believer embraces all that the Church teaches.\u00a0 But there is a little matter of priority and emphasis, isn\u2019t there?\u00a0 In all the words of scripture and the Catechism, where is the core of the teaching?\u00a0 What is the most important thing in God\u2019s eyes?<\/p>\n
Jesus was quite critical of the Pharisees and Scribes precisely over this point.\u00a0 In truth, the same dilemma applies to all Religious peoples.\u00a0 For example:\u00a0 Moslems obey the Ramadan fast law, and zealously guard against anyone who would draw an image of the prophet Mohammed because that\u2019s what their aggregate teaching says.\u00a0 Orthodox Jews believe in ritual washing of food; and dietary separation of dairy and meat for the same reason.\u00a0 Hindus believe that cows are sacred.\u00a0 I could go on and on.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t want anyone to misunderstand me, I\u2019m not meaning to be critical.\u00a0 I\u2019m just trying to point out some details.\u00a0 There are many things each of these Religions teaches.\u00a0 But what is the most important thing in these and all religions?<\/p>\n
For Christians, I think we heard it summarized in our two readings today.\u00a0 First, God looks into the heart.\u00a0 Yes, it is what is in our heart that matters.\u00a0 Do our hearts believe in God, I mean really believe in God?\u00a0 Do we believe in the story of Jesus as our savior?\u00a0 And do we accept that God\u2019s will is the blueprint for our lives so we can follow in his destiny?\u00a0 Do we trust in Him no matter what happens?<\/p>\n
Second, what kind of a God do we believe in?\u00a0 Is he a distant, judging, critical God?\u00a0 Or is he a God of love?\u00a0 Jesus tells us pretty clearly in the Gospel.\u00a0 He tells us that we should \u201cRemain in my Love\u201d.\u00a0 So it is the loving God that we need to believe in.\u00a0 And if we believe that God treats us with Love, then we have to believe that He treats everyone else with the same love, too.<\/p>\n
And so, when a person believes in God in the heart; and embraces the love of God in his heart; then God will give them \u201cHis Holy Spirit\u201d as it says in Acts.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t just happen for Catholics, but for all who believe in God in their hearts, and act out of love.<\/p>\n
The Apostles were evangelizing the world, and had to make adjustments to embrace those they converted.\u00a0 We are called to evangelize, and to make adjustments as well.\u00a0 Love of our neighbor is the most important evangelization we can do, especially those who are filled with the same Spirit of God, whether they are Catholic or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thursday of the 5th Week of Easter Acts 15: 7-21; John 15: 9-11 Deacon Larry Brockman Listen once more to these words from Acts:\u00a0 \u201cAnd God, who knows the heart, bore witness by granting them the Holy Spirit just as he did us.\u201d You know, all of us here bear a special gift- our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[102],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":726,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions\/726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}