Have Faith in HIM

Gospel
31 May 2009
Pentecost Sunday
Jn 20:19-23

On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”

***

By Jeline Lee

Fear.

What do we fear? Our death? The future? The truth? Yes, it’s fine to be afraid sometimes, especially when you’re in a grave situation, but, never forget the word, faith.

Faith? What does faith have to do with fear? When we have faith in God, we lose our fear and put all our troubles in Him. Just as what the apostles were doing, having faith in Him. They know that if the Jews find them, they’ll end up just like Jesus. After the Holy Spirit descended upon them, they learned to have faith and be courageous in their evangelism because they realized what Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection meant for us and all our sins. The early martyrs who received several tortures to give up Christianity during the Roman persecution also had this faith. What did they say? “I have faith in God!”. They all died. But because of their deep faith, majority of the world’s population are now Christians. That, my friends, is the power of faith.

But, what if all of them did not have faith in God? The apostles will not be as what they were, spreaders of the good news. And since no one will spread God’s word, then there will be no martyrs, no Roman persecution. Christianity will have ceased to exist.

And what does that have to do with us modern people? In this hectic world, we cannot avoid having problems, conflicts, social injustices and the like. And sometimes, in the midst of our problems, we tend to forget that there’s a helping hand, God’s helping hand. And instead of having faith, we even blame Him for these kinds of conflicts; not realizing that these mere problems are just life’s challenging routines.

Conclusion? Have faith in HIM. And I’m certain that we’ll be like the disciples who rejoiced when they saw the Lord.