In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Who is God for you?
Two thousand years ago, Jesus asked His disciples this same question
"Who do you say that I am?"
Mark 8:27
Today History has not finished answering it.
He dressed poorly and those around Him were people without culture.
He did not possess titles or wealth.
He had no weapons or power.
He was young and from the beginning, He was hated by the powerful, and misunderstood even by His own disciples.
Violent people found Him meek and weak. Those who kept order found Him violent and dangerous.
Those who were educated despised Him and were afraid of Him. There were some who laughed at Him,
but the poor admired Him a lot, because Jesus loved them.
There were many who followed Him out of convenience more for His miracles than for having a true conversion of heart.
There were those who saw in Him the Messiah, but others, especially the official ministers
of religion, considered Him an enemy of the people, a blasphemer and a profaner
of the Sabbath and the laws of God.
A few days before His death,
they hailed Him as the Messiah
but in the supreme moment, everyone abandoned Him, even His closest friends, except for a few women.
However, twenty centuries, that is more than two thousand years later,
History continues to talk about this man.
The time is counted from His birth, each year more than
a thousand volumes are written on His person and doctrine.
His life has served as an inspiration to half of the art produced in the world and every year thousands of men and women from all over
the world, leave everything, family, country, properties, to follow Him without conditions,
like the first twelve disciples of Jesus.
Who, then, is this man who at the same time,
claims to be God?
Who really is Jesus of Nazareth?
Why is it important to know about Jesus?
Jesus was not an astronaut from a distant planet, nor a magician who practiced magical arts learned in Egypt.
Jesus was not an ordinary man.
He, while He was a man, was also God
and with His life He has taught us to know a good, loving and kind God, a friend who is close to men, His children.
He taught us with His life the greatest and most beautiful truth that the whole
world could ever know
GOD IS LOVE.
God loves you.
Jesus loves you just the way you are right now.
You are His son and He wants to be your friend
“you are my friends, if you do what I command
you” He says in John 15:14.
For this reason, if nobody loves you, if everyone rejects you,
if you are too old or sick or ugly or ignorant or poor or sinful, He loves you and says
“My son, your sins are forgiven” Mark 2:5.
"Do not be afraid, because I am with you and you are
in my eyes of great price, of great esteem and I love you very much"
Isaiah 43:43.
And now breathe deeply and smile
God loves you, Jesus loves you, your life has full meaning
and God expects a lot from you and is counting on you for the great task of saving the world.
Jesus also taught us to forgive,
and even more, to love our enemies up to seventy times seven
and this means always and without any conditions.
And you, do you hold resentment or desire for revenge in your heart?
If you want Jesus to be your Teacher, let Him teach you and follow His path.
It is the only way
to be happy and to make others happy in this world and in the next.
You cannot be indifferent to Him.
Either you are with Him or against Him
Either you follow Christ or Satan,
there is no middle ground in this life.
So for those who accuse the Pope and other priests according to the obscure criteria of
others, we could say
"And who are you, to sit in judgement over somebody else's servant?
Whether he deserves to be upheld or to fall is for his own master to decide;
and he shall be upheld, for the Lord has power to uphold him."
Romans chapter 14 verse 4
We have been created by God to love and to forgive
We have not been created to accuse and judge anybody.
Judging is the job of God and not ours
What is your life option?
Do you really want to be a Catholic?
For those who do not have faith, following Christ
may seem like a pointless tale
but who can assure them that they are in the truth?
Jesus was the son of His land, the Jewish people, and He loved His land and people
He was like us, a son of our land.
He grew in stature and age before God and before men.
He was poor and had to work for a living.
He welcomed sinners with love and did not mind being “contaminated” by lepers.
He was simple and He liked to bless, caress, and hug children.
Jesus was a man who adhered to the norms of the Jewish religion, but He overcame many prejudices that had distorted it.
The Jews believed in a distant God, whose name could not be pronounced
and Jesus comes to us as a friendly God where you can have a personal communication with Him.
He loved the poor with special preference,
but He also had rich friends like Lazarus of Bethany,
Joanna wife of Chuza, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea.
He also loved Gentiles or foreigners
and also Samaritans, whom the Jews hated
and even performed miracles for them
and preached
and converted them, because He was God for all and had come as the Savior of the whole world.
He was also very fond of women.
Jesus reestablished the value of women in society.
He wanted His divinity to unite with humanity through a woman.
His Mother and our Mother is
the most perfect human person that has ever existed, exists and will exist,
her name is the Virgin Mary.
In addition, He had a group of female disciples accompanying Him,
something frowned upon at that time
and they were the bravest at the supreme moment of
the cross and were by His side until the end.
Other things that the Pharisees threw in Jesus'
face were, for example, eating without washing His hands or being accompanied
by sinners like Matthew, former publican, tax collector or Mary Magdalene, former prostitute.
This, for them, was almost as bad as blasphemy.
For this reason, Jesus calls them whitewashed
tombs, hypocrites, who only care about the exterior and not about the love of the heart.
Jesus put all His efforts in the liberation of the heart.
He never spoke against the oppressive
Romans or the existing slavery.
Because, above this material and physical life
there is another
supernatural and eternal life, the life of the soul.
And He came to save sinners and free them
from the worst slavery that exists
which can last forever and that is the slavery of sin.
For this reason, those who want to see in Jesus a social revolutionary
who raised the masses against the exploiters or the Roman rulers,
are just perfectly ignorant.
The center of the evangelical message is love and forgiveness, even to enemies.
Those who hate or teach to hate are far out of Jesus' path.
He did not despise riches, but He teaches us not to put them before God.
"You cannot serve
God and money at the same time"
Luke 16:13.
And He invites us to trust in the Providence of God,
who has even the hairs on our heads numbered
Luke 12:6
And do you trust in God?
Do you trust in Him every day of the week
or only on Sundays when you go to Mass?
Another great lesson that Jesus gives us is the value of suffering.
He saved us through the cross
and wants us to carry the cross every day without despair
but by giving it value, offering it with love.
With His own life He taught us the value of fasting, prayer and penance.
He spent forty days
and forty nights in prayer and fasting, preparing for His great mission to preach salvation.
Through the cross we will come to the light of the resurrection.
We must be true Catholics with Christ crucified, because, whether we like it or not, the cross is
an indispensable part of our human existence
and we must accept it with love to give it meaning,
and thus obtain many graces and blessings from God for us and for others.
Jesus is the light of the world, the joy of the world; without Him, the world would be empty and
without light.
Our very life would have no meaning
because if Christ had not come to
save us, what would have happened to us?
Jesus is the Savior, our Savior.
He always waits for us,
to forgive us and bless us and console us
let us go to Him and stop wasting time.
He also came to heal the sick and bring peace and comfort to those who are heartbroken
and release those who are imprisoned.
His human and divine Heart is, at the same time, a heart full of love
for each and every man
Catechism of the Catholic Church 478
He loved the sick and "all who touched him were cured"
Matthew 14:36.
And He wanted love to be the hallmark of His disciples.
"By this they will know that you are my disciples in that you love one another"
John 13:35
Jesus wants to heal you today too
He wants to be your Healer and your Savior.
He wants to fill
your life with His joy and peace.
He is able to turn your old man into a new man.
Therefore,
you must bet everything on Him.
It is worth living and dying for Jesus Christ.
"Remember that my life is but a breath"
Job 7:7
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.