Reflections of a beloved son

What comes to mind when you read “remaining faithful?” Maybe thoughts of commitments made or promises broken.   In his second letter to Timothy, St. Paul implores him “Remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know from whom you learned it…” (3:14).   “Because you know from whom you learned it.”   At the heart of remaining faithful is not really a thing, thought, or idea, but rather a person.   It is someone to whom we promise.   It is somebody to whom we remain faithful. When we vow to uphold a promise it is not really the content to which we feel connected, but rather to the person with whom we made that pact. We do not remain faithful to a set of rules and regulations; rather we remain faithful to a person: Jesus Christ.  We follow those rules and regulations because we know who gave them to us.  We follow them because we know they are good for us and are conducive for our salvation, and we know this because of who...

In this Sunday’s Gospel  (Lk. 17:11-19), we are told of the encounter between Jesus and Ten Lepers.   They begged Jesus to heal them of their leprosy, and Jesus simply told them “ Go show yourselves to the priests .”   While they were on their way, one of the lepers realized he was cured, and so he returned to Jesus and gave glory to God.   Jesus asked where the other 9 lepers were and said to the one Samaritan man who returned, “ Stand up and go; your faith has saved you. ” It was the man’s faith that saved him. What happened with the other nine?   Jesus said that they were cleansed, but why did they not return with the one to give thanks and praise?   Maybe they did not realize they were cleansed.   Maybe they did not have faith that Jesus would cleanse them.   Maybe they were too focused on getting to the priest and on questioning Jesus’ method that they failed to see what was actually taking place.   Maybe they did not even know the...

In the Spiritual Exercises , St. Ignatius of Loyola teaches of the “Two Standards.”   One is the Standard of Christ and the other is the Standard of the enemy.   We are confronted with the choice to either stand with the army of Christ or with the army of the enemy and his lies.   In St. Luke’s Gospel Jesus says to His disciples one “cannot serve both God and mammon” (Lk. 16:13).   At face value, of course the choice is clear—we ought to stand with the army of Christ and to serve God.   But, when it comes down to making the decision and actually living out that decision day in and day out, is it as clear and easy?   Do our actions and choices make that decision obvious?   Everyday we are given numerous opportunities to choose.   If someone does an act of uncharity, do I return one?   Or do I even think about saying or doing anything back that would be uncharitable? You may ask yourself how does this relate to either serving God or ...