Isaiah 49:3, 5-6
Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-10
1 Corinthians 1:1-3
John 1:29-34
We have just been singing, “Here I am Lord; I come to do your will.” The psalmist is speaking to God. When we speak to God, it is never to inform him; it is always to remind ourselves. So when we sing, “Here I am Lord; I come to do your will” we are reminding ourselves of what our relationship with God is.
“Here I am Lord.” God already knows where we are. We are the ones needing the reminder. Here we are on earth, in the exact situation that our current time and place finds us. We could imagine a thousand people, each in their own unique situation, calling out, “Here I am Lord.” A person in the depths of grief can say, “Here I am Lord.” A person on top of Mount Everest can shout, “Here I am Lord.” A person made weak by illness can whisper, “Here I am Lord.” A person caught in addiction with no visible way out can call out, “Here I am Lord.”
This is often how we begin prayer, by telling the Lord where we are, as a child tells their father how things are going. God knows where we are. Not just our location but every fact about us, even what we ourselves do not know. This phrase, “Here I am Lord” is a reminder that no matter where we are, we can call out to God. There is no one in the world, no matter their situation, no matter their struggles, no matter their triumphs, who cannot stop and say, “Here I am Lord.”
We should attain the habit of this prayer. Ten times a day we should stop and turn to the Lord and say, “Here I am Lord.” This part of the prayer is all about the present. The past does not matter: how I got here, whose fault or success it was, is beside the point. I am here, and here is not too far away to speak to the Lord, so “Here I am Lord.”
The past matters only inasmuch as it has created the situation we are in. What we have done and what we have suffered has put us here today. Here. Exactly where each one of us is. Our here and now includes certain responsibilities, certain commitments, certain disabilities, certain liabilities. God knows that. He knows exactly where we are. We are the ones who might lie to ourselves. So we stop and say, “Here I am Lord.” Yet this was only half of the prayer that we sang. “Here I am Lord,” but now what? “I come to do your will.” This is to say that, no matter where we are, we can choose to do what is right.
Sometimes people believe that in their current situation it is impossible to do what is right, but it is always possible to cast aside everything and follow God. There is always a road from where we are to where we should be. When people are in difficult situations, so many lies reach out and claim that they can deal with it. In this culture of death, many of these solutions (Abortion, Suicide, Euthanasia, Terrorism) involve death, but killing can never undo the reality of where we are right now.
Abortion is a lie. Some people think that the morality of abortion depends on how the woman got pregnant. If a woman is pregnant, and it is unfair, then she should have an abortion, people say. But abortion cannot change reality. This is the lie. Abortion claims to fix something, but if a mother kills her child she is still the mother of that child. Nothing can undo reality.
No matter what the difficult situation, we are tempted away from God’s will. One person believe that their sins are too serious for God to ever accept them again. Another thinks that God’s will is too idealistic and impractical. These are lies; we can always turn back to God. Another is in a situation that is just unfair, and they cannot believe that they are required to accept it, but what else can we do with reality except to accept it? No matter where we are, we always have complete freedom to begin to do God’s will. No matter how we got where we are, we cannot change the reality into something else, but we can move forward from this point in the direction of God.
We have to give up our own will. If we today give up every one of our plans for life, if we today give up every expectation, every anticipation, every ambition, every entitlement, every sense of our fair share, it is possible to do God’s will, to be completely happy. How many people are prevented from following God because of a daydream! How many times must we remind ourselves? God loves us. He knows what is best for us. Therefore, his plan is specially designed to get us what is best for us. What more could we want?
Just as Israel had to give up the idea of being the only nation favored by God. They are hoping to be restored as the favored nation, but God says, “It is too little, the LORD says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” Paul had to give up a promising career as a Pharisee to become an apostle (and what is an apostle but a wandering beggar? It seems impressive now, because of where God’s will took him. At the time it was about as low as a person could go.). John the Baptist had to give up the following he could have had as he pointed the way to Jesus and away from himself.
So too we must give up whatever is tying us down here, even if it seems like the most important thing. We must give up anything that prevents us from doing the will of God: whether an object or a goal or plans or simply our pride. No matter how much time, effort, and money we have invested in this obstacle, not even if we have made it the center and meaning of our lives, if it prevents us from following God, we must cast it aside. And when we give it up, and travel down the way of God’s will, and arrive at heaven, if we should, by some chance turn and look at that precious thing that lies cast aside on the road, we will laugh at ourselves for ever thinking it of any value at all in comparison to God’s love and what he has prepared for us.
Daily Homilies
January 18, 2014 - Saturday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
1 Samuel 9:1-4, 17-19; 10:1
Psalm 21:2-7
Mark 2:13-17
In any group project, at work or school, we might have the tendency either to take over the project or to let others do all the work. Some people are glad to have all the work done for them, but other people cannot trust anyone else to do their share properly, and depending on the group and what needs to get done they might be right, but in the group project that is this world we have to admit freely that we are not the most competent or the greatest. Those who have a tendency to take over a project are at a disadvantage. Those who know how to let others do work for them are better prepared to trust in God.
In the first reading today God chooses as king a man who was better than all the other Israelites. He was taller and stronger and more handsome than any other Israelite, but God will eventually find a replacement for him. When we think of the first king of Israel, usually King David comes to mind, there was a king before King David: King Saul who we read about today. God rejected Saul because Saul was not obedient. God gave Saul a job to do with specific instructions, but Saul decided he knew how to do it better.
The scribes and Pharisees might have liked Jesus better if when he came to Earth he gave them recognition for all their hard work. Instead, he spends his time with all the slackers. They do not understand why Jesus would want to be near sinners, but Jesus says that it is only natural since sinners are the ones who need his salvation. The scribes and Pharisees need his salvation too, but they do not know that. The sinners are at an advantage because they know that they need God. The scribes and Pharisees are delusional because they think that they can get along on their own strength.
What is better, to have the whole weight of the world resting on your shoulders or to have someone else carry that weight? Without question, it is better to have someone else carry the weight, but only if we can trust that someone else. We may not always be able to trust others, but we can trust God. In the presence of God we can finally let go and let someone else take charge, submitting to him in all humility.
Psalm 21:2-7
Mark 2:13-17
In any group project, at work or school, we might have the tendency either to take over the project or to let others do all the work. Some people are glad to have all the work done for them, but other people cannot trust anyone else to do their share properly, and depending on the group and what needs to get done they might be right, but in the group project that is this world we have to admit freely that we are not the most competent or the greatest. Those who have a tendency to take over a project are at a disadvantage. Those who know how to let others do work for them are better prepared to trust in God.
In the first reading today God chooses as king a man who was better than all the other Israelites. He was taller and stronger and more handsome than any other Israelite, but God will eventually find a replacement for him. When we think of the first king of Israel, usually King David comes to mind, there was a king before King David: King Saul who we read about today. God rejected Saul because Saul was not obedient. God gave Saul a job to do with specific instructions, but Saul decided he knew how to do it better.
The scribes and Pharisees might have liked Jesus better if when he came to Earth he gave them recognition for all their hard work. Instead, he spends his time with all the slackers. They do not understand why Jesus would want to be near sinners, but Jesus says that it is only natural since sinners are the ones who need his salvation. The scribes and Pharisees need his salvation too, but they do not know that. The sinners are at an advantage because they know that they need God. The scribes and Pharisees are delusional because they think that they can get along on their own strength.
What is better, to have the whole weight of the world resting on your shoulders or to have someone else carry that weight? Without question, it is better to have someone else carry the weight, but only if we can trust that someone else. We may not always be able to trust others, but we can trust God. In the presence of God we can finally let go and let someone else take charge, submitting to him in all humility.
January 17, 2014 - Friday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
1 Samuel 8:4-7, 10-22
Psalm 89:16-19
Mark 2:1-12
I would like to begin by just making an observation that several features of this Gospel suggest that the paralyzed person was not an adult. Jesus calls him “child”, and of course there is the practical aspect of lowering him from the roof: he must not have weighed so much. I do not know why, but I think that when I used to hear this story I thought of the paralyzed person as a man, and while nothing is certain from the indications that I point to, it just seems more likely that he is a child or a man so reduced by disability so as to be like a child.
If he is a child, it is all the more difficult to deal with the association that Jesus makes between the forgiveness of sins and healing. A tiny paralyzed child small enough that four people can let him down through the roof: is he being punished for his sins? What sins could this child have? The obvious answer is original sin.
Perhaps this seems unfair or cruel, but that is really a separate question. We know from reality that suffering is present from the first moments of life. A child born with a disability or disease, are they guilty of some sin? Of course not! But then again they are often suffering the consequences of sin. Fetal alcohol syndrome, addiction to drugs, malnutrition, and many other ways that young children suffer is the consequence of sin — their parents' sin or the sins of their country's leaders or the sin of greed and selfishness in the world. Since all this is apparent on the material level how can we doubt that it reflects a spiritual reality that sin causes suffering in this world, and the innocent are often the ones who suffer.
Yet Jesus says to the child, “Your sins are forgiven.” Original sin needs to be forgiven just like actual sin. In what way each of us carried the guilt of original sin from our conception is not clear, but we do know that baptism forgives the guilt of original sin. Undoubtedly, there is much we do not understand about reality. There are more things in heaven and earth, than are dreamt of in our philosophy. When we see a child suffering we can be sure that this is the consequence of sin in the sense that no child would have suffered in Eden. All the suffering in the world, what we hear on the news, what we see with our own eyes, is the consequence of sin. We must remember that when we think of committing all our little sins. Even if we cannot imagine how our sin causes suffering in the world, we at least ought to be opposed to sin when we see the evil that sin has done. To support sin, to defend sin, to accept sin, is to side with that which causes the suffering of innocent children.
Psalm 89:16-19
Mark 2:1-12
I would like to begin by just making an observation that several features of this Gospel suggest that the paralyzed person was not an adult. Jesus calls him “child”, and of course there is the practical aspect of lowering him from the roof: he must not have weighed so much. I do not know why, but I think that when I used to hear this story I thought of the paralyzed person as a man, and while nothing is certain from the indications that I point to, it just seems more likely that he is a child or a man so reduced by disability so as to be like a child.
If he is a child, it is all the more difficult to deal with the association that Jesus makes between the forgiveness of sins and healing. A tiny paralyzed child small enough that four people can let him down through the roof: is he being punished for his sins? What sins could this child have? The obvious answer is original sin.
Perhaps this seems unfair or cruel, but that is really a separate question. We know from reality that suffering is present from the first moments of life. A child born with a disability or disease, are they guilty of some sin? Of course not! But then again they are often suffering the consequences of sin. Fetal alcohol syndrome, addiction to drugs, malnutrition, and many other ways that young children suffer is the consequence of sin — their parents' sin or the sins of their country's leaders or the sin of greed and selfishness in the world. Since all this is apparent on the material level how can we doubt that it reflects a spiritual reality that sin causes suffering in this world, and the innocent are often the ones who suffer.
Yet Jesus says to the child, “Your sins are forgiven.” Original sin needs to be forgiven just like actual sin. In what way each of us carried the guilt of original sin from our conception is not clear, but we do know that baptism forgives the guilt of original sin. Undoubtedly, there is much we do not understand about reality. There are more things in heaven and earth, than are dreamt of in our philosophy. When we see a child suffering we can be sure that this is the consequence of sin in the sense that no child would have suffered in Eden. All the suffering in the world, what we hear on the news, what we see with our own eyes, is the consequence of sin. We must remember that when we think of committing all our little sins. Even if we cannot imagine how our sin causes suffering in the world, we at least ought to be opposed to sin when we see the evil that sin has done. To support sin, to defend sin, to accept sin, is to side with that which causes the suffering of innocent children.
January 16, 2014 - Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
1 Samuel 4:1-11
Psalm 44:10-11, 14-15, 24-25
Mark 1:40-45
Whose side is God on in a war? Neither side. God is greater than humans, so he cannot be on our side. We can be on his side, in the sense that we can do what is right. Whenever we do what is right, we are on his side. Indeed, two men on opposite sides of the battle, each one fighting for his country, trying to do what is right, could both be on God’s side. Such are the unfortunate circumstances of this fallen world.
The Israelites were losing their war with the Philistines, but then they had an idea. They thought that they could not possibly fail once they had brought the Ark of the Covenant into their camp. Then they lost the war worse than ever before. They had faith in the power of God to win the battle for them. The Philistines were frightened at the thought of fighting against the powerful God of the Israelites. So what went wrong? The Israelites forgot to account for one thing: God is not our slave who does whatever we tell him to do.
God is powerful, but his power is not at our beck and call. If God had let the Israelites win that battle, what sort of lesson would it have been for them? They would have thought of the Ark as a magical device. They would have thought of God as a power that they could control. We are constantly tempted to see God as our servant and to be upset with God when he does not do as he is told.
Either God is our servant, or he is our equal, or we are his servants. Which is the truth? The truth requires us to submit in service to God. This means that I must view my life as that of a servant. This is a completely different mindset that affects my whole life. The purpose of my life is not to seek pleasure or to amass wealth or to win the esteem of my fellow humans. The purpose of my life is to serve, and that is the purpose of your life too. It does not matter – deacon, priest, husband, wife, whatever – we are called to serve. To live as a servant is to grow up, to be an adult. This world is full of the spectacle of fully grown people wanting to be served like children. We Christians are called to put away childish things, to be grown ups, which means being servants.
Psalm 44:10-11, 14-15, 24-25
Mark 1:40-45
Whose side is God on in a war? Neither side. God is greater than humans, so he cannot be on our side. We can be on his side, in the sense that we can do what is right. Whenever we do what is right, we are on his side. Indeed, two men on opposite sides of the battle, each one fighting for his country, trying to do what is right, could both be on God’s side. Such are the unfortunate circumstances of this fallen world.
The Israelites were losing their war with the Philistines, but then they had an idea. They thought that they could not possibly fail once they had brought the Ark of the Covenant into their camp. Then they lost the war worse than ever before. They had faith in the power of God to win the battle for them. The Philistines were frightened at the thought of fighting against the powerful God of the Israelites. So what went wrong? The Israelites forgot to account for one thing: God is not our slave who does whatever we tell him to do.
God is powerful, but his power is not at our beck and call. If God had let the Israelites win that battle, what sort of lesson would it have been for them? They would have thought of the Ark as a magical device. They would have thought of God as a power that they could control. We are constantly tempted to see God as our servant and to be upset with God when he does not do as he is told.
Either God is our servant, or he is our equal, or we are his servants. Which is the truth? The truth requires us to submit in service to God. This means that I must view my life as that of a servant. This is a completely different mindset that affects my whole life. The purpose of my life is not to seek pleasure or to amass wealth or to win the esteem of my fellow humans. The purpose of my life is to serve, and that is the purpose of your life too. It does not matter – deacon, priest, husband, wife, whatever – we are called to serve. To live as a servant is to grow up, to be an adult. This world is full of the spectacle of fully grown people wanting to be served like children. We Christians are called to put away childish things, to be grown ups, which means being servants.
January 15, 2014 - Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20
Psalm 40:2, 5, 7-10
Mark 1:29-39
The Lord calls out “Samuel” and Samuel says “Here I am.” Jesus spends a day and a night healing the sick and casting out demons, and the next day he is up bright and early, headed for the next towns. Samuel lived to serve. If Eli called, Samuel was there. He does not drag himself out of bed or just shout across the temple, “What?!” He carries his intention through. Jesus came down from heaven to earth, not to sit around and watch tv or fritter away the hours lying in bed. He came for a reason, and every action he did was part of accomplishing his purpose.
We too have a purpose. God wants each of us to accomplish something. Just as he called Samuel to great things, so he is calling each and every one of us to great things. Do not pretend that you cannot hear the call of God! You can hear it. I can hear it. I know what God wants; I just fail to actually do it.
Are we going to live inconsistent lives? Make New Year Resolutions and then leave them by the wayside? It is not as if it is actually difficult to be a better person. It does not require effort to pass over unhealthy foods. Exercising more is not beyond our abilities. To go out of our way to love people is not a superhuman feat.
So what is wrong with us? It is as if we are people just waking up, groggy and unable to act. We should be like Samuel. We should be like Jesus. We should say, “Behold I come to do your will.” If we did not know, we would have an excuse, but since we do know God, and we know that we should follow him, we have no excuse.
The good part is that we can talk ourselves up, we can give ourselves a little motivational speech. The bad part is that it only lasts for a little while. So what should we do? Give up and surrender to mediocrity? No! Begin again over and over and over again. Do not make a new year resolution; make a new hour resolution, perhaps a new minute resolution. “With this minute I intend to do great things.” A journey of a thousand miles is simply two million individual steps. A life of dedication to the Lord, of great accomplishment in righteousness, is simply the summation of what we did with each minute.
Psalm 40:2, 5, 7-10
Mark 1:29-39
The Lord calls out “Samuel” and Samuel says “Here I am.” Jesus spends a day and a night healing the sick and casting out demons, and the next day he is up bright and early, headed for the next towns. Samuel lived to serve. If Eli called, Samuel was there. He does not drag himself out of bed or just shout across the temple, “What?!” He carries his intention through. Jesus came down from heaven to earth, not to sit around and watch tv or fritter away the hours lying in bed. He came for a reason, and every action he did was part of accomplishing his purpose.
We too have a purpose. God wants each of us to accomplish something. Just as he called Samuel to great things, so he is calling each and every one of us to great things. Do not pretend that you cannot hear the call of God! You can hear it. I can hear it. I know what God wants; I just fail to actually do it.
Are we going to live inconsistent lives? Make New Year Resolutions and then leave them by the wayside? It is not as if it is actually difficult to be a better person. It does not require effort to pass over unhealthy foods. Exercising more is not beyond our abilities. To go out of our way to love people is not a superhuman feat.
So what is wrong with us? It is as if we are people just waking up, groggy and unable to act. We should be like Samuel. We should be like Jesus. We should say, “Behold I come to do your will.” If we did not know, we would have an excuse, but since we do know God, and we know that we should follow him, we have no excuse.
The good part is that we can talk ourselves up, we can give ourselves a little motivational speech. The bad part is that it only lasts for a little while. So what should we do? Give up and surrender to mediocrity? No! Begin again over and over and over again. Do not make a new year resolution; make a new hour resolution, perhaps a new minute resolution. “With this minute I intend to do great things.” A journey of a thousand miles is simply two million individual steps. A life of dedication to the Lord, of great accomplishment in righteousness, is simply the summation of what we did with each minute.
January 14, 2014 - Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
1 Samuel 1:9-20
1 Samuel 2:1, 4-8
Mark 1:21-28
Presumption is the source of such great evil in our world. People presume that they understand another’s motivations. People presume that they know what is going on. They judge their neighbor. What an example we have today, when Eli, the head priest, walks up to Hannah and starts reprimanding her publicly for being drunk when actually she was praying. And Eli was a righteous man. He was a good priest. But what he did here was wrong.
We give priests great honor, which is right since they stand in the person of Christ. Jesus forgives our sins through the ministry of the priest. He turns bread and wine into his Body and Blood through the words of the priest. The priest inasmuch as he is a priest, is Jesus Christ, but inasmuch as he remains himself, he is a fallen man like any of us. The problem is, how do we give so much respect to a person’s office while still being ready to ignore and forgive or even condemn the man for what he does and says?
People have left the faith because of words that a priest spoke. Perhaps what the priest said was right, perhaps it was wrong, but they hurt. They were hurt by a priest, so they turn away from the Church. It does not make any logical sense: whether a priest has offended us has nothing to do with whether Jesus Christ is the Son of God and our Savior, but these people are not thinking logically. They have been hurt, so they want to exercise what power they can against the one who has hurt them.
What good does this do? I am hurt, so I react with anger and hurt someone else or just hurt myself. This does not make the world a better place. What is needed is humility, and Hannah provides such an example of humility. She would have been fully justified in letting Eli have it, either to his face or by leaving and grumbling about it later. Instead she humbly insists that his accusation is untrue and explains herself. If Eli had had Hannah’s humility, he would have been more careful. What we need is humility before we hurt other and humility when others hurt us. What we need is humility.
1 Samuel 2:1, 4-8
Mark 1:21-28
Presumption is the source of such great evil in our world. People presume that they understand another’s motivations. People presume that they know what is going on. They judge their neighbor. What an example we have today, when Eli, the head priest, walks up to Hannah and starts reprimanding her publicly for being drunk when actually she was praying. And Eli was a righteous man. He was a good priest. But what he did here was wrong.
We give priests great honor, which is right since they stand in the person of Christ. Jesus forgives our sins through the ministry of the priest. He turns bread and wine into his Body and Blood through the words of the priest. The priest inasmuch as he is a priest, is Jesus Christ, but inasmuch as he remains himself, he is a fallen man like any of us. The problem is, how do we give so much respect to a person’s office while still being ready to ignore and forgive or even condemn the man for what he does and says?
People have left the faith because of words that a priest spoke. Perhaps what the priest said was right, perhaps it was wrong, but they hurt. They were hurt by a priest, so they turn away from the Church. It does not make any logical sense: whether a priest has offended us has nothing to do with whether Jesus Christ is the Son of God and our Savior, but these people are not thinking logically. They have been hurt, so they want to exercise what power they can against the one who has hurt them.
What good does this do? I am hurt, so I react with anger and hurt someone else or just hurt myself. This does not make the world a better place. What is needed is humility, and Hannah provides such an example of humility. She would have been fully justified in letting Eli have it, either to his face or by leaving and grumbling about it later. Instead she humbly insists that his accusation is untrue and explains herself. If Eli had had Hannah’s humility, he would have been more careful. What we need is humility before we hurt other and humility when others hurt us. What we need is humility.
January 13, 2014 - Monday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
1 Samuel 1:1-8
Psalm 116:12-19
Mark 1:14-20
Today Jesus says four things to the people. 1) The time is fulfilled. 2)The Kingdom of God is at hand. 3) Repent and 4) Believe in the Gospel. This is his initial proclamation. Should we walk around shouting out these four things downtown? I do not think we will make any converts. If we say that the time is fulfilled, and we mean is that Jesus has come for the first time, people will say, "I have heard that already.” If we say, "The Kingdom of God is at hand", people will respond, "Oh yeah? Well where is it?" If we say, "Repent", they will say, "Stop judging me!" or if we do a better translation and say, "Change your mind!", they will ask for proof that they should. Then when we finally say, "Believe in the Gospel!", they will laugh and say "Oh, is that all? You are just one of those. Leave me alone."
Jesus had a difficult audience too. The people whom Jesus was preaching to were weary of so-called Messiahs; they had been promised salvation by many different people who had all failed. The difference here was the preacher: he said, “The Kingdom of God is at hand” and there he was: the king. He lived the Gospel. He was the Gospel. The Christian Gospel does not fall on deaf ears when it is preached by a saint, but it seems mediocre when preached by someone who ignores it.
When we say that the world is completely different because of Christianity, but then we live like everyone else, they know that we do not really believe what we preach. When we say that “the time is fulfilled” but then waste this fulfilled time in the pleasures of the world, they know that we do not really believe that our message is urgent. When we say to them, “Repent; change your mind” but continue in our sins and selfishness and in our pride refuse to change ours, they know we do not mean it, not really.
Before we worry about whether we can get them to hear these words, can I get you to hear them? Can I get me to hear them? The world does not believe because we do not believe, because, if we did believe, we would live as if it were true. The message of the Gospel is very powerful, but only where there is any evidence that it actually makes a difference.
Psalm 116:12-19
Mark 1:14-20
Today Jesus says four things to the people. 1) The time is fulfilled. 2)The Kingdom of God is at hand. 3) Repent and 4) Believe in the Gospel. This is his initial proclamation. Should we walk around shouting out these four things downtown? I do not think we will make any converts. If we say that the time is fulfilled, and we mean is that Jesus has come for the first time, people will say, "I have heard that already.” If we say, "The Kingdom of God is at hand", people will respond, "Oh yeah? Well where is it?" If we say, "Repent", they will say, "Stop judging me!" or if we do a better translation and say, "Change your mind!", they will ask for proof that they should. Then when we finally say, "Believe in the Gospel!", they will laugh and say "Oh, is that all? You are just one of those. Leave me alone."
Jesus had a difficult audience too. The people whom Jesus was preaching to were weary of so-called Messiahs; they had been promised salvation by many different people who had all failed. The difference here was the preacher: he said, “The Kingdom of God is at hand” and there he was: the king. He lived the Gospel. He was the Gospel. The Christian Gospel does not fall on deaf ears when it is preached by a saint, but it seems mediocre when preached by someone who ignores it.
When we say that the world is completely different because of Christianity, but then we live like everyone else, they know that we do not really believe what we preach. When we say that “the time is fulfilled” but then waste this fulfilled time in the pleasures of the world, they know that we do not really believe that our message is urgent. When we say to them, “Repent; change your mind” but continue in our sins and selfishness and in our pride refuse to change ours, they know we do not mean it, not really.
Before we worry about whether we can get them to hear these words, can I get you to hear them? Can I get me to hear them? The world does not believe because we do not believe, because, if we did believe, we would live as if it were true. The message of the Gospel is very powerful, but only where there is any evidence that it actually makes a difference.
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