Faith vs Persecutors

This week's readings if you follow the daily reading from http://www.usccb.org/nab/ come from the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 5:17-42.

Peter and the other apostles had started preaching to the people about Jesus- His life, His death and resurrection as they had witnessed it first hand. The Sadducees and high priests felt threatened by the influence of the apostles on the masses. The Sadducees felt that they were the teachers of the Law and the authority on all faith and religious matters not these fishermen apostles of the carpenter's son ! The High Priest had even sent them to jail and what happened  - they were miraculously set free ! Then they were right back at it preaching in the temple to the people about Jesus - take that Sadducees ! They went right back preaching and teaching and weren't afraid to get imprisoned again. Gamaliel a respected teacher of the law advised the other high priests to leave Peter and the apostles alone. If their activities are of human origin it will destroy itself, if on the other hand it is from God no one will be able to destroy it.

The actions of the apostles show immense signs of faith. How many persons have been persecuted and killed for preaching and teaching Jesus Christ. Has the preaching and teaching of Christ stopped yet ? No.

But alas, there is fear that one day it might as I see dwindling numbers of church goers and increasing numbers of persons just existing not believing in anything much but themselves. Secularism is a new kind of religious persecution where we start our lives living, preaching and teaching Jesus Christ and are persecuted for  doing just that and get then get our lives thrown into the jail of sin. How does it get there in the first place ? Why do criminals commit crimes ? Because the crime may seem to attain them something more attractive than what they presently have in their current legit lives.

It is the same thing with sin in general. We see a nice thing in the world that seems so attractive we almost convince ourselves we deserve to have it - one night stands, "getting wasted" (drunk) , stealing, adultery, breaking up marriages and relationships by encouraging  and participating in affairs, making excuses for not praying, participating in illegal acts. In attaining these things we chip away our spiritual lives piece by piece until it is eventually thrown into jail. Our spirit sometimes feels captured. But if we continue to give into our human ways we will be destroyed and remain in jail. We are not perfect and it happens to all of us. However if we repent and reform our lives (and in turn our spirit) and come back to God he will set us free. Have faith that He will for what is of God cannot be destroyed. Once we are free we should not be afraid to face the world again but should be brave to go back to doing what Satan is threatened by-teaching and preaching Jesus Christ not only with our words but by the way we live.

That's it for now ! Blessings !


Nicole

PS It's May- Pray the rosary ! I didn't like praying the rosary at all until I started really praying it more often. I realized how powerful a prayer it is. It is like a soothing Mantra which allows you to really focus on the things you need to pray for. If you're not sure how to do it go to youtube and look for a good instructional video. Or pray it with the group on EWTN who pray it at 7:30 am EST every morning.