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He Gave His Only Son

"Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

John 21:29

• There should be less talk. A preaching point is not a meeting point.


• The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved-- they are Jesus in disguise.


• In the West there is loneliness, which I call the leprosy of the West. In many ways it is worse than our poor in Calcutta. (Commonweal, Dec 19, 1997)


• It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.


• The poor give us much more than we give them. They're such strong people, living day to day with no food. and they never curse, never complain. We don't have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them.


• I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?


• I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness.


• Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.


• If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

~Mother Teresa~

We come to know Jesus when we accept the Christian message not only as "informative" but "performative." That means: the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known - it is one that makes things happen and is life changing. Christian faith for us today must be a life-changing and life-sustaining hope so that we know we are redeemed through the hope that it expresses.

Being baptized, becoming Christian, is all about eternal life: it is not just an act of socialization within the community, not simply a welcome into the church. The parents expect more for the one to be baptized: they expect that faith, which includes the corporeal nature of the church and her sacraments, will give life to their child - eternal life. Ultimately we want only one thing - "the blessed life," the life which is simply life, simply "happiness." In the final analysis, there is nothing else that we ask for in prayer. Our journey has no other goal - it is about this alone.

The Christian faith has shown us that truth, justice, and love are not simply ideals, but enormously weighty realities. It has shown us that God - Truth and Love in person - desired to suffer for us and with us. We need martyrs if we are to prefer goodness to comfort, even in the little choices we face each day - knowing that this is how we live to the full. The capacity to suffer for the sake of the truth is the measure of humanity. The true stars of our life are the people who have lived good lives. They are lights of hope. Jesus Christ is the true light, the sun that has risen above all the shadows of history. But to reach him we also need lights close by - people who shine with his light and so guide us along the way.

URLVD

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