WHAT SHOULD WE DO? (PART I)

 

WHAT SHOULD WE DO? (PART I)

In my article last week I proposed that there is something that all of us can do in the battle to protect our children and our society from violence.  We can fight this work of the devil by living holy lives.  Rather than throwing up our hands and surrendering to helplessness, we can stretch out our hands to God, or clasp them together in humble prayer, and be what God has made us to be.  Jesus said, “You are the light of the world…Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father” (Matthew 5:14,16).  The best thing we can do for our children and our society is to be authentic witnesses to the truth of God’s love and forgiveness of sins. 

The purpose of the Enemy is the lead the world to hell.  He wants company in his misery.  We are blessed, however, that God “desires all people to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).   For this purpose, God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn human beings but to save them (cf. John 3:16).  Jesus became man and suffered his Passion in order to restore humanity back to God. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).  The works of the devil are destroyed when men, women and children acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord.  It is by faith that we are saved.  Faith comes from hearing, from the witness and testimony of those who are the light of the world (cf. Ephesians 2:8; Romans 10:17). 

God promises us that because we are his children, having received the Spirit of adoption, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4; cf. Romans 8:15).  Because Christ has ascended to the Father, believers in Christ will do greater works than he did, by calling on his name and keeping his commandments: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth…you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you” (John 14:12-17).  As the children of light, we can do greater works than what Jesus did, for we have been given his Spirit, and we are everywhere in the world.  It is Jesus who does the work through us of bringing men and women to salvation.  By the grace of Baptism, with his Holy Spirit living within us, we are the light of the world. 

We are living in exciting times because of the opportunities for evangelism before us.  Our environment is similar to what Saint Paul confronted in Corinth.  That city of harbors was a commercial center in the ancient world, having been rebuilt by Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. after lying in ruins for a century.  It was prosperous, well-populated, a crossroads for trade and culture, and decadent in its morals.  The Greeks themselves recognized this decadence in their language.  To “corinthianize” meant “to give oneself over to debauchery.”  Nevertheless, Corinth was a field ripe for the harvest when Paul preached the gospel.  Despite, or maybe because of, the rampant sin the citizens were ready to receive the spiritual and moral refreshment that comes from embracing the gospel.  St. Paul’s experience taught him that “Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more” (Romans 5:20).

People are the same in every time and place.  Today they also are longing for Christian witness.  As citizens, we ought to be aware of public issues and support those leaders who will use their office to promote justice, law and order.  But the most powerful thing we can do for our children and our society is to fully live the gospel in our personal and family lives, and to share our faith with others.  We are called to be the building blocks in what Saint Pope Paul VI referred to as a “civilization of love.”  Pope St. John Paul II also called it a “culture of love” and taught that such a civilization originates in the revelation that “God is love” (1 John 4:8).  People need to see and hear this truth so that they can “come to know and believe in the love God has for us” (1 John 4:16).  I believe that our Christian witness in the home, the workplace, the schools, the neighborhoods, in social media, and in politics will do more to save our culture than anything else.