"Do you believe this?"
Gospel Reflection for July 29, 2024
“And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. [But] even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus told her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.’” (John 11:19-27 NABRE)
The question that Jesus asks Martha is so powerful and convicting: “Do you believe this?”
Do we believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life? Do we believe that we have eternal life in Him? And do we live as though we believe this?
Many people today do not accept this truth, or any truth at all for that matter. They reject Jesus and deny the reality of objectivity. In today’s day and age, one’s subjective opinions suffice in being the standard to live by. Every single person can believe, live, act, and think what and how they want, because “there is no right or wrong way of doing things.” The motto of our culture is “everything and anything goes!” Except of course, anyone who disagrees with this. Such people who disagree must be silenced.
The Word of God foretold all that we are witnessing today:
“But understand this: there will be terrifying times in the last days. People will be self-centered and lovers of money, proud, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious, callous, implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, as they make a pretense of religion but deny its power. Reject them. For some of these slip into homes and make captives of women weighed down by sins, led by various desires, always trying to learn but never able to reach a knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:1-7)
It seems like every day immorality becomes increasingly more accepted as normality. And this can be so overwhelming and disheartening for us as Christians, because we desire to honor God by being united to Him and each other in the pursuit of holiness and virtue.
However, we must not lose hope. Jesus promised that “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against” His church. (Matt. 16:18) We may feel saddened and worried, or even frustrated by the world. But after all, our faith is not in this world. Our faith is in God.
Amidst this decline in morality, we must stand firm in our faith as children of God, and as His servants. Yes, the Holy Spirit within us causes us to be repulsed and saddened by the sins and debauchery in the world around us. However, like Martha, we must confidently and steadfastly proclaim our faith in Jesus as the Savior. We must stand firm in sharing and spreading the Gospel and the Truth Himself, so as to counter the acceptance of evil and the relativism of today. By being unwavering as we live out our faith, we can help our Lord and God to preserve His light in the world and to spread this light of His Kingdom to others.
Our Lady of Kibeho told her visionary, Anathalie, that accepting a life of service to the Lord would help our Mother in combatting the evil of the world.
“‘My child, you must pray, for the world is in a horrible way; people have turned from God and the love of my son, Jesus.’ Mary then proceeded to map out what Anathalie’s future would be if the young visionary volunteered to live her life in the service of the Lord: ‘So many souls are running to ruin that I need your help to turn them back to my son. As long as you are on Earth, you have to contribute to the salvation of souls. If you will work with me, I shall give you a mission to lead those lost souls back from the darkness.’”1
We must all accept this mission!!
Like Martha, we must absolutely and unwaveringly live out our belief in Jesus as our life and Savior!! May we serve our Lord and God in union with our Blessed Mother Mary by combatting the darkness of this world. By zealously and prayerfully living out our faith we can spread the fervor of our souls for Jesus and help to spread His light. We must always seek to proclaim and defend the existence of the Truth, in Whom we believe.
Immaculee Ilibagiza, Our Lady of Kibeho: Mary Speaks to the World from the Heart of Africa (Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, Inc., 2008), 49.
Whenever I consider the state of values today … I think of the church existing in a Greco-Roman pagan world and ask; what has really changed? As humans we are consistent in our pursuit of personal pleasure over everything else. So, how did the Church advance the Gospel then? I think… one soul at a time.
Thank you for this. It is always good to ask ourselves what we believe. We say the Creed on Sunday but how much attention do we pay to what we are professing? Sometimes I find myself just reciting it from memory. We have to realize that people over the centuries died for some of these words. But I can't help but think of St Peter's act of faith when asked this question. He answered "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God". And Jesus responded that St Peter is the rock that the Church will be built upon because only God could have given that answer to the first Pope.