Our Venerable and God-bearing Father Euthemius the Great (473)
Read
Hebrews 13:17-21; Luke 6:17-23
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
We must have faith. If we follow Jesus Christ truly and with all confidence in Him, then we will see things that others do not see and be able to speak truth, for He is truth, into the world in which we live. The people that followed Our Lord and gathered around Him in today’s Gospel approached with faith seeking healing in body, mind, and spirit. They saw in Our Lord something different, something true, something that drew them, in a word they encountered truth.
Our faith is forever bound together with truth like stones are bound together in a great cathedral. Our faith in Christ is the foundation wall for all that we are, all that we say, and all that we do. If we live this faith, as Our Lord says in today’s Gospel, we will face opposition from those around us and we may face loss of position; we might be shamed and reviled, even hated; we might be seen as an outcast, as Catholics are increasingly seen in our deeply secularist society. But we must not engage in despair as this is fundamentally counter to our baptism. We must instead pray daily for an increase in hope, in faith, and in love and Our Lord will surely give these to us. It is only with an abundance of these virtues that we will be able to profess Christ’s truth in the world, in our country, in our families, our workplaces, our schools, and among our friends. We cannot know now how professing our faith openly and publicly might touch those around us who long for truth. Such a profession is an act which brings great gladness: “Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven…”