GOD NEVER RETIRES

We never retire from being faithful. “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn 8:35).

How can we become true followers of Jesus?  St. Teresa of Calcutta said, “You have to be holy where you are, wherever God has put you.”  So, I asked myself, when in my life, have I had an experience that made me truly see, in the people around me, Jesus as the one sent by God, the One setting me free of my weaknesses and embracing my own dignity as a child of God?

Years ago, I met three young men who regularly worked on Habitat for Humanity job sites.  When I asked them about it, they said, “It’s in honor of our mother who received the gift of a Habitat house, we do this because the work of Habitat is her legacy to us.”  As these young men were faithful to the works of their mother, how could I not be faithful to the God who gives me the grace to know my worth as His beloved child. 

The three witnesses, in today’s the first reading, knew who they were and whom to place all their trust.  They knew, it is God alone who lifts us and liberates us.

If we sincerely desire freedom, Jesus leads us into truth, so we may be truly free.  He guides us on how we live and call others, in word and deed, to a deeper and richer sense of themselves.  To know we are children of God is enough to keep faithfulness living within us.

Our Gospel antiphon says, “Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance.” (Lk 8:15) Throughout his Gospel, John describes stages of faith, beginning with a fundamental curiosity and questioning, such as Nicodemus shows.  This is a time of opportunity, especially for parents to share their faith to their child(ren).  John’s stages of faith includes growing in a faith receptive to Jesus’ revelations so that listeners can “abide” in Jesus’ teaching with continuing openness to the truth he reveals.

Anywhere we are, God is found.  Our time of “social distancing”, work and school from home, and the spiritual reception of Eucharist can be living sources of freedom as we come to feel at home in God’s faithfulness and love for us.  As we trust to embrace our identity as His beloved children.

God never retires.  So, we, as faithful servants of God, right where we’re at, must never retire for our faithfulness to God.