People encounter God in a wide variety of ways: in the good example of a believer, the longing for something greater than what this world typically offers, serious suffering, the magnetic power of the truth, or even a direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for example. One reality that is common to all people of deep faith is that at some point they experience God’s personal love for them. They encounter the living God and become convinced by the grace of faith that He loves them personally and desires to draw them up into a real union with Him. The prophet Isaiah uses the image of a mother and child to describe this intimacy. “As nurslings, you shall be carried in her arms, and fondled in her lap; as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.” God’s care for His children is personal, tender, deep, merciful and everlasting.
Once we encounter the living God and come to know His love, we are motivated to change our lives. It is His extraordinary love that beckons us to turn from our sinful ways and discover the fullness of life. His love casts out fear from our lives and invites us to come face to face with the truth of our human condition. We are quick to see our sins, admit them honestly, confess them regularly and walk humbly on the journey. We are also profoundly motivated to do good and to develop virtues that help us to live the truth in the face of life’s many challenges. Gradually, we stop living for ourselves and start living for the Lord. St. Paul reminds us that faith changes our whole perspective on the world: “I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” God’s love is the greatest motivator for lasting change in our lives.
Finally, authentic faith, the fruit of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, sets our hearts on fire with a desire to invite others to join us on the journey with Christ to the Father. Our faith becomes a treasure that we can’t imagine not sharing with others. We want, like a little kid who just received an awesome birthday present, to show it to everyone. The inner drive to invite others into this awesome way of life flows naturally from our faith in Christ. It is also something that He calls us to do. God uses the many gifts that He has given to us to enable us to do this work, but the most important way we respond is by the example of our lives.
We see how important the witnessing of our faith is to Jesus in the Gospel this week. He sends out a group of 72 disciples ahead of Him, in pairs, to every place He intended to visit. They were to prepare hearts and minds of the people to receive Jesus when He came to visit their villages. We get a sense of Jesus’ sorrow that more people are not willing to do this work when He says: “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for the harvest. Go on your way.”
The Christian life is a journey marked by three stages: discovery of the love of God, allowing God to radically change our lives and being sent to let the light of Christ shine through us in the world. Am I making progress on the journey? Am I giving Christ the chance to transform my life by spending enough time with Him in prayer, sacraments, Christian fellowship and humble service of my neighbor?
