14/092024

For some time now, I have tried to put myself into the mindset of the first Christians. 

The first conversions were made not by the beauty of a liturgy or the intellectual power of a logically systemized dogma, a Theology, but by the shared charisma of the first believers. These human beings were filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit and it was into this community of joy that all converts were attracted and welcomed. 

They also expected that the promised return would happen in their own lifetimes.

Human patience can be stretched but for each of us there are limits. Moses' followers had had enough for their "slavery" to the Egyptians had kept them alive in comfort. The life of the desert although lived in freedom was intolerably harsh, their internal elastic bands broke and they defied both IAMIAM and Moses.

The Jewish early Christians had grown up listening to the readings of the scrolls and the wisdom of the Rabbis, but for the gentile converts part of the "Good News" that they heard from the all Jewish Apostles was the prefiguring of Christ to be found in the Old Testament. We continue to treat it as such.

Our FatherSonHolySpirit never runs out of Love; he is eternally patient. Jew and Gentile converts all share the New Life that is limited in our bodies but without end for our souls. The Old Testament is a training ground for us to use to prepare our souls for the one historical event that reveals the Glory that awaits each one of us.

The Resurrection unites the first believers and us for all time. We are united in the Spiritual Body of Christ who rose from the dead. We all have to choose this for ourselves as we are the new Chosen People, chosen to accept or reject the place prepared for each one of us by our resurrected and ascended Lord.

We must never forget, however, that this place is not a birthright but has been bought for us by the triumph and horror that is the "True man's" true death on the Cross. "By this sign" we will conquer not the world, for that is an empty triumph, but the weakness that draws us into sin. 

We will become an individual saved by our choice to follow the Son "sent by God not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved."

Dear Lord, you know that I still struggle to remain free from sin. You know that my mind is still filled with all sorts of images of remembered failures. You also know that there is also a continuing hope that I can remain true to you. To your teaching but most of all true to the remembrance of the suffering that FatherSonHolySpirit undertook in the person of Jesus to eliminate the Evil created by sin. May my prayers join those of Mary, the Angels and all the saints in that joyful moment  when all is completed and I will sin no more. Let us all become part of the community of souls, the Church of Love the New Holy Family that remains untainted by the world "Son behold your mother, Mother behold your son". May I, this day, remain in your merciful care as I say "Our Father.......