"Are You a Missionary for God or the Devil?"

The commentary is below the readings.

Reading 1
Acts 8:5-8, 14-17

Philip went down to the city of Samaria
and proclaimed the Christ to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.
For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice,
came out of many possessed people,
and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city.

Now when the apostles in Jerusalem
heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God,
they sent them Peter and John,
who went down and prayed for them,
that they might receive the Holy Spirit,
for it had not yet fallen upon any of them;
they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then they laid hands on them
and they received the Holy Spirit.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20

R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, "How tremendous are your deeds!"
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
"Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!"
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.

Reading II
1 Pt 3:15-18

Beloved:
Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Always be ready to give an explanation
to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,
but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear,
so that, when you are maligned,
those who defame your good conduct in Christ
may themselves be put to shame.
For it is better to suffer for doing good,
if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.

For Christ also suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,
that he might lead you to God.
Put to death in the flesh,
he was brought to life in the Spirit.

Gospel
Jn 14:15-21

Jesus said to his disciples:
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him."

Gospel

In this gospel, Jesus talks about how we can love him by keeping his commandments. He also says that in keeping his commandments, we will be loved by the Father and Jesus, and that Jesus will reveal himself.

Is Jesus proposing a deal? Is he suggesting that he will only love us if we obey the rules? Absolutely not! The idea that we can earn God's love is completely wrong and is a popular misconception among Christians. God does not hate US when we sin, but in sinning, we often begin to hate ourselves. We then think that the distance growing between us and God is because God is pulling away from us. He isn't. When we sin, WE pull away from God.

Unconditional Love

The point is, God loves us no matter what- even if we don't obey the commandments! After all, Jesus was praying for the people who sinned greatly against him. "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."¹ Jesus' love is not in response to how GOOD we are. It is free of charge no matter how bad we are!

When Jesus is mocked by the soldiers, he did not open his mouth. When they made fun of him and tested him while he was on the cross, he didn't tell them to "shut up!" On the contrary, Jesus' heart is broken when we sin.

God's Love Flowing Through Us

So if Jesus is not proposing a deal with us, then what does he mean by "whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I'll love him and reveal myself to him."? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."² God literally spoke his Word to Moses. "The gift of the commandments is the gift of God himself and his holy will. In making his will known, God reveals himself to his people."³ God is sharing himself with us through the commandments.

"In keeping the commandments, the Savior himself comes to love, in us, his Father, and our brethren."⁴ When God gave us the commandments, he gave us a piece of himself. When we keep the commandments, Jesus' love flows through us to our brothers, sisters, friends, family, to God the Father. In other words, the commandments allow us to participate in God's love. In following the commandments, we get to be Jesus. Is Jesus happy? I think so. If we follow the commandments, we'll be happy even if we are made to suffer. (2nd Reading).

The Invitation

The commandments are not rules here to spoil our fun. The commandments are INVITATIONS to enjoy the love of God. We need to hear that again- the commandments are INVITATIONS to enjoy the love of God. In faithfulness to the commandments, we can see who God is (God reveals himself as promised). Who is God? He is love.

Here is an example: Jesus commands us not to get divorced.⁴ Why? It's because Jesus is saying this: Even if you cheat on me (worship other Gods), even if you beat me up, and even if you are ashamed to say you know me⁵, I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU!

Jesus will never divorce us, so he doesn't want us to divorce each other. If we listen to this, we get to love like Jesus does (unconditionally). Can you see that Jesus' commandments are invitations to LOVE LIKE HE DOES? If so, you and I need to act like we believe it and live the commandments every day!

2nd Reading

The author says that we should "always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope." As Christians, our hope is God. The author of this reading goes on to say that we should "keep our consciences clear." In this week's gospel, Jesus tells us HOW to keep our consciences clear. All we need to do is follow his commandments and our consciences will be quite clear.

When we follow his commandments, God reveals himself to us. So, how can we give an explanation of our reason for hope? We must first obey the commandments. After all, how can we tell someone about God if we don't even know him? The less we obey, the less we know him. How can we share God's loving commandments with someone if we don't obey the commandments ourselves? We can't. You can't give someone something that you don't have. We can't explain our reason for hope, if we don't follow the commandments.

Empty-Handed

Let's look at what happens when we try to tell someone about God while disobeying the commandments. I know lots of people who were once Christians and have since left. But why did these brothers and sisters of ours leave the church? My ex-Christian friends have told me:

• One friend left (or stopped going to church) because a priest was very mean to her.
• One left Christianity because some so-called "Christians" told her that she should forget about her non-Christian parents because they are going to hell.⁶
• One left partly because his dad claimed to believe in Christ and yet he was convicted of a felony and went to prison (leaving the family with little hope)

This reading says that if we want to tell someone about our "reason for hope" we must "keep our consciences clear." In other words, it is impossible to bring others closer to Christ if we ourselves are far from him.


Missionaries

Someone recently told me that my job as a missionary,⁷ "was not the path for her". Well guess what? Everybody is a full-time missionary whether they know it or not! Either our faithfulness to God is drawing others to God, or our lack of faithfulness, is driving others AWAY from God. That means we are either missionaries for God, or missionaries for the Devil! When we obey God, we are missionaries for him. When we disobey God, we are missionaries for the devil. Just look at the above examples of how sinfulness drives others away from God.

Have our actions (whether good or bad) ever influenced our friends? I think it would be better if we keep our consciences clear.

What God Wants

Many people tell me that they feel like they wanna do something else for God besides going to work and Church, and occasionally doing charitable work or donating. It is good to have this desire. More important than this desire to do extra stuff, is that we understand that God wants us to first OBEY HIS COMMANDMENTS.

If we obey his commandments, we shall participate in his incredible, unconditional love. We shall get to know God better. If we truly try to obey his commandments, we will be so happy, fulfilled, and excited about God that nothing will be able to stop us from figuring out what else God wants us to do with our time. God will shows us very clearly what he wants us to do besides work, church, and occasional charity.

First things, first. We must accept the invitation to love and obey his commandments.

The Point

• God wants us to obey the commandments. Even if we sin and disobey the commandments, he still loves us.
• The commandments are commandments to love one another. So, a look at the commandments is a glance at how God loves us.
• When we obey the commandments, God and his love flows through us.
• Each commandment is an invitation and an opportunity to love the way God loves- unconditionally
• God wants us to share him and his love with everyone. We can ONLY do this if we first OBEY his commandments
• If we try to evangelize while disobeying the commandments, we will drive others from God and the Devil will use us to evangelize for THE DEVIL.
• We are missionaries. EVERYTHING that we do, is either bringing others to God or driving them away from God.
• If we want to do something for God, we must obey his commandments.

Real Life

One of my friend's friends killed himself during high school. In his suicide letter, he said that if just one person would have smiled at him or spoken to him on the day of his impending suicide, he wouldn't have done it. Never underestimate the power of a loving smile and the power of empathizing.

There was a boy who was going home from school one day when some fellow classmates knocked the books out of his hands. As he was picking up his books, another classmate came to help him. Soon thereafter, they became good friends. At graduation, the boy who had his books knocked out of his hands gave a speech. In his speech, he talked about what a great friend he had. This friend came to help him one day when some bullies knocked his books out of his hands. He went on to say that the reason he was carrying so many books that day was because he had planned to kill himself that day. He had cleaned out his locker because he didn't want to burden his family with the cleanup after his death. His loving friend unknowingly saved the boy's life.⁸

Jesus said, "I give you another command, love one another."

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1 Luke 23:34
2 John 1:1
3 Catechism of the Catholic Church 2059 & related to Ephesians 1:9-11
4 Mark 10:11-12
5 Peter was ashamed of being associated with Jesus in Matthew 26:69-75
6 This is my opinion of why she left the church. My friend might not agree with me
7 She said that "what you are doing is not the path for me"
8 This is how I remember the story, though I probably screwed up some parts

The Purpose of Your Life is......

The Mass readings are below the commentary.

This week’s liturgy is a true gem and it reminds me of the parable of the buried treasure in the field. A person finds the treasure, and with great joy, he then sells all that has so that he can buy the field with the treasure. In the Gospel, Jesus wants us to know the purpose of our lives. After we understand it well, we want to “sell it all” and do what Jesus wants.

The Ultimate Question We All Ask

I don’t care if you are a Hindu from Bangalor, India, a Muslim from Iran, or just a hillbilly Christian like me from Kentucky/Mexico. Everyone has at some point asked this question: What is the point? What is the point of my life? Why the heck am I here and what am I supposed to do with my life? Should we ask the magic 8-ball? Na, our Creator has the answer.

In this beautiful Gospel, God wants to tell us the answer to the most important question of our lives. ARE YOU READY?!!!!!!

Jesus describes “eternal life” in the Gospel. When he says “eternal” he is not talking about length, he is talking about quality. Eternal life is this- “that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent-Jesus Christ.”

God’s Plan for Us

What the heck does all of that mean? God is perfect and blessed. He is beautiful! In his plan of pure goodness, he created man to make man share in God’s own blessed life. God did this, not because he had to, but because he wanted to. This is a supreme act of love. First of all, God gives us life.

In our ignorance and weakness, we are scattered (divided) by sin, and God calls us back to him so that we can be united as a family of believers. God calls us back by sending his only Son to save and redeem us.¹ God is a perfectly loving person. He is SO loving, that he wants to share his perfect love with someone- me and you. We have screwed up our lives, but God has sent his Son to help us come back to God.

We have received that good news and so, Jesus tells us to “ Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” ²

Again, Jesus is talking about the PURPOSE OF OUR LIVES. Those who know and love God are supposed to share the love of God with others. We are supposed to teach others to obey the commandments (Matthew 28:18-20)³. Then, Jesus makes a promise. I am going to be with you FOREVER. That’s why Jesus is such a good manager. Like any good manager, he goes beyond telling us what to do. Better than any manager, he STAYS with us forever.

AWESOME, that means that not only do you know the meaning and purpose of your life (to know and to love God), you have the most powerful person in the universe as your bodyguard and teacher! Yesssir! Awesome! Again, what is the purpose of our lives? Our purpose is to know and to love God. How do we love him? That’s easy, put his commandments into practice.⁴

How do we get to know God? There are many ways. The best way to get to know him is the same as the best way to love him- obey his commandments. Obeying is the best way to get to know him because in obeying the commandments, we become imitators of God and so, we get to know what his perfect love is like. We get to know GOD by honoring our parents, by telling the truth always, by being thankful (instead of envious) etc. The commandments give us a sneak preview of God’s perfect love. In other words, we get to know him better.

God is our creator and he is perfect, blessed, and holy. He wants us to experience the same love he experiences. We have already messed up our lives, and in order to help us live the perfect, blessed, holy life that he lives, he has sent his son to rescue us. Jesus asks us to obey his loving commandments and spread the good news of God’s love in order to fulfill his plan for us. God does us a loving service to tell us what we are supposed to do with our lives- we are to know him and to love him.

The Enemy

Jesus calls Satan the father of lies.⁵ Whatever God wants, Satan wants the opposite. God wants us to know, love and serve him⁶. In response, Satan wants to put a blindfold on us, he wants us to hate God, and he wants us to serve anything or anyone other than God.

We have an idea of God’s game plan- send Jesus to save us. Let’s look at the Devil’s game plan.

Commandments are For Tired, Miserable, Bored Unhappy Christians

The devil is extremely crafty, manipulative, and smart. He knows that the best way to get to know God is to follow his commandments. So he tries to get us to dislike the commandments. How does he do that? Well, he tells us that obeying the commandments is not fun. Satan tells us that following the commandments is boring and we will be unhappy. However, Satan does not talk to us audibly with his own voice. He uses our friends, media, books, internet etc. Here are examples:

• Jesus says, forgive one another. Donald Trump says, “get even” in his book The Art of the Comeback.

• Jesus says, whoever looks at a woman lustfully, has committed adultery in his heart. Hugh Heffner, the founder of the most popular pornography magazine ever “Playboy“, seems to think that what he is doing is some form of art. The question is, would I want my sisters and daughters in these magazines? Absolutely not, so why should I be looking at someone else’s sister/daughter in an impure way?

• Jesus says that you can’t serve God and money. Rapper “50 cent” says we should “Get Rich or Die Tryin’”

The Liar

The world that we live in, is in violent opposition to the love of our God, who has a loving plan for each of us beginning with the gift of life.

In the Gospel of John (8:31-44) Jesus was talking to Jews “who believed in him” He said, “you belong to your father the devil and you willingly carry out your father’s desires. There is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks in character, because he is a liar, and the father of lies.”⁷

First of all, Jesus is talking to those who “believe in him”. This is some tough criticism and he is giving it to people who already believe in him. Do I profess to believe in Jesus? I do. So Jesus is talking to me and you in this gospel! Jesus says that “you belong to the devil and you willingly carry out your father’s desires.” Ouch! The scary thing is that we often don’t even know that we are carrying out the devil’s desires. We already talked about this last week how in sinning we are being missionaries for the devil. We sin willingly, but we need to remember that when we sin, we are serving the enemy of our God. Our God loves us.

The Devil’s Counter-Attacking Plan

A powerful weapon the devil uses is lying. The father of lies tells us things like, “the baby in the womb is not a person.” We believe what he says (as he speaks through others, media, books, magazines, the internet)⁸ and go on to kill our own children. This is part of the reason why Jesus calls the Devil a “murderer from the beginning”. His lies are so powerful that they have enough influence to KILL. The central point of this discussion is that God is perfect and loving and he has purpose for our lives starting with the day of our birth. The devil knows how beautiful and generous this gift is from God. Naturally, he attacks LIFE just as any military commander would try to stop the main objectives of his enemy. God’s objective is to keep giving us life. The abortion of 50,000,000 American babies since Roe v Wade is the devil’s masterpiece of horror, anguish, pain and death. This is in contrast to God’s beautiful gift of life. The devil IS cunning isn‘t he?!!

Jesus calls himself the way, the truth and the life. Since the devil is opposite Jesus, he is the wrong way, the lie, and the death. Do you believe this is true?

We’ve got to recognize the voice of the Devil when we hear it, and we’ve got to turn away from him- refusing to do what HE wants us to do. How do we recognize the voice of the devil? Anything contrary to what the Bible says⁹ and what the church teaches is a lie and is exactly what the devil wants us to think.

ANYTHING contrary to what the Bible says and what the Catholic church teaches is a LIE and is exactly what the devil wants us to think.

The Attack on Sexuality

I once asked my brother, “why does the devil attack our sexuality so much?” Why is it that sin is knocking on my door through my sexuality? I told my brother that if the Devil concentrates his efforts on sexuality so much, then sexuality must be important to God. It makes better sense to me now. Sexuality is the means through which we accept God’s supreme gift. That gift is life and all of it’s beauty. Life is first necessary before we can actively know, serve, and love the Lord. The devil had me convinced for many years that sexuality is about entertainment and pleasure. What a LIE! This lie helps in his battle against God.

A Picture Of Satan

Imagine this image in your head. Jesus extends his hand. With his word, babies are created and they are floating towards a crowd of people. Jesus says, “here is life!“ The devil is in front of this crowd between Jesus and the crowd. The devil has a sword and uses it to chop off one of the baby’s heads. The devil has a large picture on his back and it is a picture of a man and woman having sex. Many of the people in the crowd are hypnotized by this image. Others are yelling, “we don’t want the babies, we don’t want the babies!”

After contemplating these thoughts, I became a little bit angry. I realized that the devil has duped me for a long time. He told me that sex was about having fun, not about having babies. This way, he got me to oppose the birth of children- God’s greatest blessing. I am angry at the devil and I want to fight him. I even felt like I was suiting up for a war against him. The truth is, we are ALL in this war whether we know it or not. Which side are YOU on?

The Point

• God is love and he wants us to experience his love. That’s the reason why he made us.
  
• God’s great gift to us is life. The purpose of our lives is to know, to love, and to serve God. This is our perfect response to his gift of life.
  
• The best way to know, love and serve God, is to follow the commandments. By doing this, we get to KNOW him, we express our LOVE of him, and we SERVE him.
• Jesus tells us to go out and spread the good news, but he also says that he is coming with us on our mission.
  
• The Devil does not want us to know the purpose of our lives. So, he lies to us through the television, books, friends, and other means.
  
• Since God’s great gift to us is life itself, the Devil is violently opposed to life. He attacks life through promiscuity, pornography, abortion, and contraception- anything it takes to stop life.

Real Life

This past week, my friend and I went to Washington D.C. to fight against the organization Planned Parenthood via a protest outside of their clinic. Planned Parenthood is responsible for over 100,000 abortions per year in the U.S. Remember that earlier, I quoted the Catechism which says that we are “scattered and divided by sin”. It’s true we are. But for a little while last Friday afternoon, I felt a real unity at the protest. I was with Baptists, Evangelicals and Christians of many denominations. We were united in one cause: to stop the killing of innocent children. In sin we are separated, but in doing God’s will we are united in love. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and there was beautiful green grass in front of that clinic of death. It was a warm day of about 75 degrees. My heart grew warmer as we joined an African American preacher in singing:

“There is power, power, wonder-working power, in the blood, of the lamb. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the lamb”.

In the middle of our singing, a man came by and told us nicely to stop singing because we were disturbing some students. In retrospect, I am reminded that this war between God and the Devil is very real. That man probably wasn’t even aware whose side he was supporting.

There were only 50 of us outside of that clinic last Friday afternoon, but within 24 hours, the story had reached CNN, FOX news, and other agencies. Using 50 people¹⁰, God delivered his message to an audience perhaps in the millions. I believe Jesus when he says, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations…and behold I AM WITH YOU UNTIL THE END OF THE AGE.” Jesus keeps his promises. If you believe that, lift your voice. At mass this Sunday when the Eucharistic minister says, “This is the Body of Christ” say AMEN! When Jesus said he would be with us to the end, he was serious.

Our God is an AWESOME God.

Reading 1
Acts 1:12-14

After Jesus had been taken up to heaven the apostles
returned to Jerusalem
from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem,
a sabbath day’s journey away.

When they entered the city
they went to the upper room where they were staying,
Peter and John and James and Andrew,
Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew,
James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot,
and Judas son of James.
All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer,
together with some women,
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 27:1, 4, 7-8

R. (13) I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life’s refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
One thing I ask of the LORD;
this I seek:
To dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD
and contemplate his temple.
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Hear, O Lord, the sound of my call;
have pity on me, and answer me.
Of you my heart speaks; you my glance seeks.
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.

Reading II
1 Pt 4:13-16

Beloved:
Rejoice to the extent that you share in the
sufferings of Christ,
so that when his glory is revealed
you may also rejoice exultantly.
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you,
for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
But let no one among you be made to suffer
as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as an intriguer.
But whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should not be ashamed
but glorify God because of the name.

Gospel
Jn 17:1-11a

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,
“Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people,
so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began.

“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world,
but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.

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1- CCC 1 - The 1^st 2 paragraphs of this email are based on CCC 1 & 2 with direct quotes

2- Matthew 28:18-20

3- Also, see last week’s Mass Excitement entitled “Are you a missionary for God or the Devil?”

4- please read last week’s Mass Excitement #9 if you want to know how and why to obey the commandments.

5- John 8:44

6- Notice I include “to serve” here. To know and to love God perfectly, is to serve him.

7- John 8:31-44

8- Visit www.plannedparenthood.com where they call a baby a “pregnancy” which you can terminate and where they claim that there is no such thing as post-abortive trauma or that it is rare. Personally, everyone I’ve ever spoken to who has had an abortion has experienced significant emotional trauma afterwards.

9- the Bible must be read in context of the entire book. Otherwise, it will not make sense, will cause confusion, and may lead us to

10- I am sure there were many others who made this protest happen, yet did not attend.

Final note: This week’s message of the liturgy speaks of the purpose of our lives. In the 1^st reading, you can see that the apostles have understood the good news of God. They entered the city with joy and “devoted themselves to prayer”. In the second reading, God wants to remind us that after we hear the good news, and we act accordingly, we will suffer as Christians. Thanks be to God, we get to imitate Jesus in all that he does.

By the way, I encourage you (if you know how to draw or paint) to draw the image I described of the Jesus, the devil, and the crowd. Ask God what to do with his painting/drawing.