Dear OLA Parish Family, 

 

God’s word can set you free and transform your life. When Jesus taught, He spoke with authority. He spoke the word of God as no one had spoken it before. When the Rabbis taught, they supported their statements with quotes from other authorities. They spoke with delegated authority: “Thus says the Lord.” Jesus needed no authorities to back His statements because He was authority incarnate; the Word of God made flesh. When He spoke, God spoke. To live, grow, and persevere in faith, we must nourish our faith with the word of God and welcome the Holy Spirit so that we may understand the great love Jesus has for each of us. 

 

Faith is powerful, but without love, it is nothing. True faith works through love and abounds in hope. Our faith is made perfect in love because love orients us to God. Hope anchors our faith and purifies our desires for the things that will last for eternity. Anything that separates us from God is destructive. The word of Christ can set us free from all that keeps us bound up in sin and despair. In today’s Gospel, Jesus offers us the power to say no to sin and evil and the opportunity to repent and believe the good news that He came to teach us. In our sophisticated world, we are reminded that this is all that will ever save us. What Jesus teaches us and what He died to give us. We can believe this and trust this because Jesus is not just a teacher but is, now and always, God’s beloved Son. 

 

Have a blessed day.

Yours in Christ,

Father Edward Domme