In two weeks, it will be Good Friday. We are approaching the conclusion of Lent, a forty-day period of prayer and fasting culminating in the renewal of our baptismal promises on Easter Sunday. When we were baptized, we were "begotten from above" (see Jn 3:3-5). Our old nature was drowned in the waters of Baptism, and we became new creations (2 Cor 5:17). We were no longer of the world, because Jesus chose us out of the world (Jn 15:19). That's why the world hates us — because we don't belong to it (Jn 15:19).
We are obnoxious to those of the world because we are children of God. Our ways are different, and we are not like other people (Wis 2:12-15). The world naturally feels compelled to persecute us.
As we prepare to renew our Baptisms this Easter, as we are transformed this Lent to live more fully our new life, persecution naturally should increase. Possibly, the world is putting us to the test "with revilement and torture" (Wis 2:19). As we become more holy, we are more of a threat to the devil and more likely to be persecuted. That's a good sign that we are growing this Lent in living the baptized life. God's Word commands: "Rejoice...in the measure that you share in Christ's sufferings" (1 Pt 4:13).
| PRAYER: | Father, clean the dust of the world off me and make me new. |
| PROMISE: | "At this they tried to seize Him, but no one laid a finger on Him because His hour had not yet come." –Jn 7:30 |
| PRAISE: | "Sing praise to the Lord, you His faithful ones, and give thanks to His holy name" (Ps 30:5). |
Reprinted with permission from Presentation Ministries, a lay association of the Catholic Church that focuses on evangelization and discipleship through Bible teaching, daily Mass, the charisms of the Holy Spirit, and Small Christian Community. Their ministries include:
· One Bread, One Body
· Daily Bread Radio Program
· Annual Bible Institute
· Discipleship Retreats
· Guadalupe Bible College