God shows no partiality

"In every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him." Acts 10:35

Our modern life has us all fighting. Yet, no one fights to actually win. No one wants to take superiority. Rather, we fight to be equal and show that we are just the same. Everybody knows that this is true. We are like children all clinging to our end of the playground carousel.

God is the only one who is able to see impartially. Indeed he loves us perfectly. So, God's fairness is to our infinite benefit. Following this revelation of the Gospel to the gentiles in Acts 10, Peter realizes that the gentiles shall be free to praise God as the Jewish people have. Cornelius sent for Peter because he feared God. He recognized something that he lacked and that the apostle had.

There are so many directions to go in. Peter's amazed discovery of equality, transcending the boundaries of his holy nation, is far from the mundane modern mind. Modernity tends towards an equality of merit. Whether I fear God or not is irrelevant. Spiritually, morally, and otherwise I should see myself as equal. Besides, fearing God is no longer recommended by psychologizing clergy in the West.

I see a profound lukewarmness, if that makes any sense. So many baptized people act as if their goal were to be respected equally by everyone. Don't respect me too little and not too much. Afraid of being different? Act the same. No one needs anyone else. We have all become equal in our own downcast eyes.

So, I find people raising their eyes to heaven right on cue. For the appropriate events in life, when everyone is watching, they seem quite assured that they are perfectly spiritual. They now apparently sell a clergy proof vest. No matter what the priest says, the heart remains encased even as the wearer tells him what a great job he did with Gram's funeral, Billy's baptism, or Suzie's first communion.

This is a well anchored secularism, that has now put down roots at the everyday level of society. I feel at times like the mole sniffing around and seeing not what kind of dirt I am traveling through. I have no idea whether seeds will sprout or not. We must be sowers, living and breathing the Word of God.

I go back to the apostles and translate their task to the clergy of today. There are some people who have a different way of living, whose object is not to align themselves to the prevailing culture. The sacraments all tell of a life that is measured from above. The Holy Spirit is then poured forth in equal measure to all who fear God actively, doing something about their desire to be pleasing to God. God spits out passive fearful ones.

When can I say "Christ" to my family?

Here's the challenge: In what family relationships may we mention Jesus Christ?

I've learned from the painful effects of witnessing to family members that I should stop trying to witness to family members. That is, I need to not mention religious conversion again. As one writer put it, it can more greatly distress a person if we should be found implying that they cannot handle their own affairs. This is the contemporary wisdom. When in doubt, speak with kindness, silence. Don't correct the ones you love until it's too late.

If Christ is not mentioned explicitly in a Christian family, is there real love? How is Jesus' name kept a secret amongst so many who are his beloved? I almost agree with the general advice that I have received. Jesus' name should be mentioned at least once. I'll not need to correct the lesser faults (practically any fault). I should never have to remove a single speck from my brother's eye if I simply remove the plank from my own eye. (Mt 7:5)

The plank: Never having spoken love's name to one whom I love. i.e. Living as if our problems, our neighbors' could be boiled down to a set of moral conditions.

I may not have preached with all eloquence and faith to move mountains, but I can trust in the name that I preached. So, I almost agree. Christ's name should be mentioned but once to the loved one in trouble.

Eventually, once the interference has faded, we can trust that the enduring Word will reach the ear of one loved, moreso by Christ than any earthly lover may know. In the waiting time of life, I listen for the Word, to be spoken back. The one who dares to speak the Word does so as its hearer.

So, I think that it is good to preach of Jesus to a loved one only once in a lifetime. There will be echoes of that message, but with the explicit intention of saving a soul, one time is enough.