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| James Tissot's "He sent them two by two." |
Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, proclaims that the death of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection from the tomb is our salvation, eternal life. Paul celebrates that God through the life-giving waters of baptism has transformed us into “new creatures,” living temples of God, alive with the breath or life of God in us.
Paul writes that the power of God enabled him to endure all kinds of hardships for the sake of the Gospel. That same power of God enables us to practice a life of virtue.
In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus sends forth disciples to continue his saving and healing work. They are to trust always in God's unconditional them for them. They reported back how they witnessed to the power of God with healings of the sick.
Now what does it mean to witness? I’m a witness not simply by seeing or saying something is true but if I actually experience it.
The disciples were witnesses to Jesus in that sense. They walked, talked, ate and prayed with him.
Peter, for example, reached out for Jesus’s hand in the Sea of Galilee. Doubting Thomas put his finger into Jesus’s side in the Jerusalem upper room.
We too are called to be witnesses. We testify to our core Christian beliefs: the triune God, the incarnation, the death/resurrection of Jesus, the dependable Spirit, the global community of disciples, life eternal. But what men and women look for, expect from us, is some visible sign that we have experienced what we believe.
We will evangelize effectively if we are a sort of sacrament, a symbol, an outward sign of God’s grace/presence in us. We must not simply know about God; we must experience God.
The heroes and heroines of Christianity knew/experienced God in their lives: Augustine, Francis and Clare of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux, Mother Teresa, and many more.
Faith from God empowers us to have a right relationship with the triune God as creator, redeemer, and sanctifier. Faith is richer and deeper than belief. Faith calls us to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ, to follow Jesus who illuminates the darkness around us as we journey toward our heavenly home. Faith is about our relationship with God that we nurture, especially in the Eucharist.
Belief, on the other hand, is a statement about the essential truths of our faith that we proclaim e.g., in the fourth-century Nicene Creed.
From faith comes a confidence and purpose in life. We trust in a God who is always near to us. Successes convince us that it is possible to succeed. Our failures show us it is possible to survive and proceed.
We are in the hands of an all-good God. And with a can-do, faith-filled spirit, we can overcome the challenges we face in life. Why? Because God loves us unconditionally, because God is always near to us and because God ultimately will achieve His purpose for us and for this universe. And to this divine providence, and to Jesus Christ, gloriously alive, our way, our truth and our life, we joyfully witness in our daily lives.
