(Audio)
Who will bring a charge against God's chosen ones?
It is God who acquits us.
Who will condemn?
Yet we take so seriously the condemnation of others. Even tacit perhaps merely implied disapproval or the dissatisfaction we perceive to be present cause us to lose our root. We begin to fear that we have no value and that we deserve every criticism ever spoken against us.
What will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?
There is only one way to separate ourselves from the love of Christ. The outside world cannot do it. Our constant mistakes and failures cannot do it. We only separate ourselves from his love by intentionally acting so as to separate ourselves. It cannot happen by accident. And even then, are we truly separated from the love of Christ? No, because he is always calling us back. He never speaks in condemnation but always invites. He calls us closer, deeper, higher.
When we know our identity in Christ, when we are rooted in grounded in his love (see Ephesians 3:17), we are able to live on purpose even when our circumstances have a voice like the Pharisees in today's Gospel. They tell Jesus, "Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you." But Jesus, who knows the Father's plan, is undeterred.
Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow,
and on the third day I accomplish my purpose.
Because Jesus conquers we too can conquer.
No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly
through him who loved us.
The purpose of Jesus is something more than the mere opposition of these forces of circumstance. He is not driven just to defeat negative forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Rather, he is driven by love.
how many times I yearned to gather your children together
as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,
but you were unwilling!
Let us be driven by love as well. Let us spread our wings to gather the world to him.
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