Wednesday, October 28, 2015

"WHO WILL SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD?"


Homily for Oct. 29th, 2015: Rom. 8:31b-39.

          “If God is for us,” Paul writes in our first reading, “who can be against us?” This rhetorical question introduces one of the greatest testimonies of personal faith in the whole of Scripture.

Personal witness or testimony has a prominent place in the worship of Evangelical Protestants – too prominent, some would say. Catholics shy away from it. Most Catholics are not comfortable speaking publicly about their personal faith. Handled properly, however, personal testimony to our faith has unique power.  

          “Christ intercedes for us,” Paul writes. How encouraged we should be to know that his work and prayer for us did not end with his resurrection and ascension. From his place at the Father’s right hand, Jesus continues to bring us and our needs to his Father’s attention. Who could be a more powerful advocate for us than the One who laid down his life for us?

          Continuing his rhetorical questions, Paul asks, “What will separate us from the love of Christ?” The unspoken answer to this question is clear: Nothing can separate us from Christ’s love; nothing in either heaven or earth.

          “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

          What an eloquent testimony to personal faith those words are; what a powerful aid to confident hope when we are down and discouraged! And how fitting were the words we spoke in response: “Thanks be to God.”

          We pray in this Mass that, when appropriate and needed, the Holy Spirit of the living God will give us words to testify to our own personal faith.

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