Tagged: memory verse

“How awesome are you, Elijah! Whose glory is equal to yours?” –Sirach 48:4 For about ten days, the Church has been reading to us about Elijah. Today we conclude this series. Before we move on, we need to be sure that we receive the message exemplified by Elijah. Elijah successfully brought down the culture of death led by Ahab and Jezebel. We have a similar mission: to bring down secular humanism’s culture of death in the Western world. Elijah’s success was based on prophecy, listening to God’s whisper (1 Kgs 19:12ff), and discipleship. These three essential dynamics of life in...

“Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Ask for whatever I may do for you, before I am taken from you.’ Elisha answered, ‘May I receive a double portion of your spirit.’ ” —2 Kings 2:9 All Christians have been baptized in the Holy Spirit (see Mk 1:8). We are immersed in the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Blessed Trinity. We are filled with the Spirit and surrounded by the Spirit. We are preoccupied with the Holy Spirit, if we are living our Baptisms fully. It is normal for Christians living their Baptisms to desire full life in the Spirit even...

“You have heard the commandment, ‘You shall love your countryman but hate your enemy.’ My command to you is: love your enemies, pray for your persecutors. This will prove that you are sons of your heavenly Father.” —Matthew 5:43-45 Jesus repeatedly commands us to love our enemies. This is the essence of Jesus’ teaching — not only because it is part of the Sermon on the Mount, but also because it is what Jesus did when He died for us on the cross. Nonetheless, many people, including Christians, have ignored Jesus’ repeated commands to love their enemies. They dismiss the...

“What I say to you is: offer no resistance to injury.” —Matthew 5:39 We are not to resist injury, but we are to “resist the devil” and he will flee from us (Jas 4:7). In fact, we are to charge the gates of hell, which cannot prevail against us (Mt 16:18). We should give the devil resistance plus aggression. However, we must offer no resistance to insult from people. We should not avenge ourselves (Rm 12:19). We should not be resisting and fighting human forces but Satan (Eph 6:12). At first, this approach seems unrealistic and doomed to failure. Look...