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272. Love

When we look at Jesus on the Cross, we do not just look at metal, wood, plaster or plastic without any meditation or prayer. When we look at Jesus’s Cross, we know that we look beyond this representation, onto God’s pierced Heart, into God’s Love who has gone to that extent so that we may be saved. The representation of Jesus’s Cross is the summit of Love for us, because of Jesus. Our soul is quenched with the memory of our God saving us.

Let’s look, understand, love who Jesus is on the Cross, letting it happen to save us. What Love led him on the Cross!

We benefit from rediscovering the Cross with Jesus nailed to it, in our churches, in our homes and elsewhere. God wants us to look at the Cross with Jesus’s Body on it, so that we may be saved. It is the support of widows, oppressed, persecuted, trailed, sick, dying, etc. The Cross is the support of the poor, the left behind, the lonely, etc.

Jesus on the Cross is the one who totally understands us. He wants us to give him the toils we have, as well as the people who are caught up all over the world. Let’s place their pain on Jesus’s Cross.

Let’s take some time, at home, to begin or continue looking at the Cross. Let’s meditate on him. Let’s pray and let Jesus speak to our heart. Far from being an unpleasant object for the eyes, Jesus on the Cross is the way of understanding pain, a path of healing and a reminder that evil kills the person. May Jesus on the Cross speak to our heart. His Love touches us. Let’s put it under our pillow and listen to him or put it on the pillow and look at Jesus. May he also be placed between the spouses.

The Cross is for us a sign of joy, liberation, redemption. The Cross is the sign and reality of the healing victory over sickness, Love over evil, the victory of Christ over death.

Jesus says:
“That everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” John, chapter 3, verse 16

Let’s read it again:
“We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. Because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.”

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273 Pray with Mary

Mary has only one goal. She always invites us to the same reality; to follow Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Mary repeatedly begs us to follow Jesus.

The Catholic Church never sees in Mary a goddess or God. It is never taught by the Church. She is a simple woman with an extraordinary experience of faith, by the grace of God. And we venerate her for who she is and for her “yes”.

A statue of Mary represents the grace of God in a woman. The memory of this woman becomes an example of true faith. The more we meditate on what God has done (blessed) in Mary, the more reasons for worshiping God.

When we kneel before her, we ask her to pray with us and for us. When we kneel before Mary, she carries our heart to Jesus. When we pray to Mary, she offers our prayers to Jesus. When we speak to Mary, she speaks to Jesus about us and for us. We ask Mary to show us the way to Jesus.

We like to ask another person to pray for us. And we pray for others. It isn’t because we intercede in prayer for another person that we stand between the person and God and that it would prevent him from reaching the heart of that person. When we pray for others, we do not place ourselves against God. To pray for a person is to let God through our heart (for God) to Love our neighbour. God Loves us to pray him for one another.

Mary does not stand between Jesus and his children. She helps us to reach her Son. Our thinking and meditation go further than a statue as our family meal allow more human depth than mere food. The body of a person allows going further than just his body, for example. It allows him to join the creation of God, the Heart of God.

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274. United in prayer
We appreciate it when someone asks us to intercede with him in prayer. And this person trusts in prayer. We pray with him by placing our trust in God. When he asks us to pray, he does not cut off God. He seeks spiritual support, like for support between friends and family.

We then ask Mary to pray with us our Lord. Just by this request, we are approaching God, with Mary. Mary helps us, when we look at her, to constantly look to her Son, so that we may be saved by him. She is with us (our Mother) for that.

Communion through prayer between us and with all the saints living on earth and in heaven is a precious support. As soon as Jesus expires on the Cross, the life of the holy persons continues:
“Jesus cried out again in a loud voice, and gave up his spirit. And behold, the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming forth from their tombs after his resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many.” Matthew, chapter 27, verses 50 to 53

The saints continue to live in God. They were sleeping, they were resurrected with Jesus. In the book of Revelation John sees a multitude of people living in heaven. It is also the case for Mary that John mentions here:
“A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” Revelation, chapter 12, verse 1

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275. Praying before a statue

Jesus’s freedom is liberation:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. A slave does not remain in a household forever, but a son always remains. So if the Son makes you free, then you will truly be free.” John, chapter 8, verses 34 to 36

Only the Son liberates us. When we pray in front of a statue, we give thanks to Jesus for what he did in this saint person. Our prayer goes beyond the statue and we praise the Lord in all humility for his wonders in the beings he has created and for the amazing beings that we are.

Statues and representations of Jesus are not “golden calves”. The Cross with Jesus on it is more than the brazen serpent on a mast. May Jesus be the master of our life. Let’s offer him all of who we are and live in the gratitude that God has deemed worthy to create us, so that we may live in his Love. May we praise God Trinity, pray to him together and with the saints give thanks and praise to him eternally.

Jesus is so precious. Let’s go with him. It’s important to deepen our Catholic faith, our faith through universal prayer and to understand it even more. Jesus is the Heart of the Church, the world and the universe.

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276. Even God want statues

There are two crafted cherubim shading the Ark of the Covenant. God himself asks Moses to melt metal, form cherubim and install them on the Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant will be carried in the desert by priests:
Make two cherubim of beaten gold for the two ends of the propitiatory,

fastening them so that one cherub springs direct from each end. The cherubim shall have their wings spread out above, covering the propitiatory with them; they shall be turned toward each other, but with their faces looking toward the propitiatory. There I will meet you and there, from above the propitiatory, between the two cherubim on the ark of the commandments, I will tell you all the commands that I wish you to give the Israelites. Exodus, chapter 25, verses 18 to 20 and 22

The statue is not bad in itself if it helps out to rise to God. We have the right to possess images of angels, people or other representations, provided that they are not perceived as gods, but help us to meditate on God’s reality.

So there is an abyssal difference between God’s will who wants us to worship him, even through representations that signify his presence in people or archangels and the desire of King Nebuchadnezzar who proclaims himself greater than God and who wants “his” people to be centred on his own person … by worshiping … a calf, “his calf”.

Now it’s up to us to choose; to follow Jesus or to follow the lie that turns us away from him. Jesus offers us his life unlike King Nebuchadnezzar who concentrates everything on himself and turns the people away from God.

Jesus is the King of Love and we can be assured that he will always be with us in all our difficulties, as in a joyful life.

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277. The Eucharist

If Sidrac, Misac and Abdenago can recognize God in the midst of the flames in a fiery furnace, if we can look at a bronze serpent on a pole that represents Christ crucified, we can also recognize God and his Love in a little host of bread at the moment of the Eucharist.

Instead of consuming idols, let’s consume the Body of Christ at the moment of the Eucharist, the food that keeps alive and prepares us for Eternal Life, in the Kingdom of Heaven, in God’s Heart.

Let’s recognize that Love occupies a piece of bread. It’s an invitation to worship him in a small piece of bread, at every mass. God is in the Eucharist, God is the Eucharist. We proclaim a thanksgiving to God. We allow him to increase by his Love, the love in us, whenever we receive the Eucharist.

God wants us to make the effort to go deeper than what we seem to see, a small piece of bread, to what we seem not to see, God himself. By the representation of a little piece of bread, and by the request of the Trinity on it, at Jesus’s request, we totally worship God who is totally present in it (in the host).

Gospel of Matthew:
“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to his disciples said, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matthew, chapter 26, verses 26 to 28

Gospel of Luke:
“He took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.” Luke, chapter 22, verses 19 to 20

Paul tells the Corinthians, because they live the banquet of God in an unworthy manner:
“I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.””

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 23 to 29

Jesus is the one who is universally worshiped and leads us with his Spirit to the Father. Jesus is our King. He is the one in whom we place our trust. He will not disappoint anyone. Let’s continue to come to Jesus. He calls upon us.

Let’s give our lives to Jesus and let Jesus’s truth take control of our lives. For our salvation and the salvation of our neighbour, let’s receive the Eucharist, Body and Blood of Christ, and allow Jesus to live freely in us. Let’s be in thanksgiving within the Love of God.

Jesus doesn’t live in time. He lives in eternity and he is with us at this very moment. Because of that, we live in the present time the same Last Supper as Jesus with his Apostles. Every mass celebrated is lived now with our Lord and Saviour.

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278. Our remoteness

Catholics do not always realize this, but the removal of people from the Church and all the invalid reasons that result from it causes a distance from God. And getting away from God can open the door to more wickedness, more suffering, more harm, more loneliness and sadness. Our remoteness also gives reasons to others to not follow Jesus.

Often, we hear people say, “but these people believe and help others!” Certainly, they are already doing well. But they lack a vital part of faith; the Word and the Eucharist.

A good person is a good person. A canoe is a canoe.

A good person who prays is a good person who prays. A ship is a ship.

A good person who prays and receives the Word and the Eucharist is a good person who prays and receives the Word and the Eucharist. A Church is a Church.

We live on reserves of Love when we stay away from prayer, the Word and Eucharist. A car that runs on low fuel will be driven to a total stop and stay put if we don’t go to a gas station to fill the tank. The car will stop where it stops. Then, the elements of nature will cease the car and it won’t roll anymore. It just might become good for scrap.

People who say they believe they do practise, but those who do not celebrate and do not revive in their Church, their reserves are emptying, their strength is dwindling. They risk freezing and no longer being able to return to Church. They are staying away from God.

The only way we can fill our reserves of Love is by receiving the Word and the Eucharist. It is also an opportunity to give the offering of our life to God and to thank him for all that he offers us with justice. All that is of God is just (justice) for us.

Let’s also learn to reconcile with our neighbour. For christians, to reconcile with our neighbour is also to invite him once more to walk with us in faith.

Let’s place our life on the Altar where the offerings of bread and wine become the Body and Blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Let’s become more and more transformed in God’s life, the Eucharist in us, through the Word. And ask Jesus to touch the generous hearts of people outside the walls of the Church and especially to reach them so they may rediscover the Eucharist and the Word.

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279. God Loves us
A prophet like Jeremiah has moments of genius and he lets himself be moved by God’s truth. He writes what he receives from God in his heart:
“I Love you with an eternal Love.” Jeremiah, chapter 31, verse 3

God Loves his people, he Loves Jeremiah, he still Loves us today. God Loves us “with an Eternal Love”. The people are happy and ask God to save him. It’s party time, joy, but for how long?

It’s simple. The further we stay away from God, the more our life lacks light, lacks strength, lacks wisdom, our life becomes drained by the refusal to receive Love. So, what can we leave aside to increase our presence with Christ? What is useless and destroying our life and what could be useful to improve our faith?

John allows us to understand that there is a choice to make, either throwing ourselves toward the Love of God or moving away from him:
“Children, let no one deceive you. The person who acts in righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous.” 1 John, chapter 3, verse 7

How to be fair if not to go to Church and thank God for all that we have of good, beautiful, real and true, then to receive him again in the Eucharist, to receive his Love once more and let his joy grow in our hearts.

May we let no one steer us away from the Love of God. May we not rely on others to decide for us. We are the only ones responsible for our relationship with Christ.

Immediately after, John tells us exactly what the word “devil” means. The one who divides our relationship with God:
“Whoever sins belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning.” 1 John, chapter 3, verse 8

“The devil is a sinner.” We give the devil many titles, but what characterizes him the most is that he is the best “sinner” of all. It’s not a very rewarding trophy to be the sinner, crowned with excellence.

To recognize oneself as a sinner and to follow Jesus is fine. But the devil decided not to choose the Love of God. He is “the sinner”. He doesn’t recognize or want to receive the Love of God. How difficult it is to understand someone who decides … not to lean with all his being toward, then dive into God’s Love.

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279. God Loves us

A prophet like Jeremiah has moments of genius and he lets himself be moved by God’s truth. He writes what he receives from God in his heart:
“I Love you with an eternal Love.” Jeremiah, chapter 31, verse 3

God Loves his people, he Loves Jeremiah, he still Loves us today. God Loves us “with an Eternal Love”. The people are happy and ask God to save him. It’s party time, joy, but for how long?

It’s simple. The further we stay away from God, the more our life lacks light, lacks strength, lacks wisdom, our life becomes drained by the refusal to receive Love. So, what can we leave aside to increase our presence with Christ? What is useless and destroying our life and what could be useful to improve our faith?

John allows us to understand that there is a choice to make, either throwing ourselves toward the Love of God or moving away from him:
“Children, let no one deceive you. The person who acts in righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous.” 1 John, chapter 3, verse 7

How to be fair if not to go to Church and thank God for all that we have of good, beautiful, real and true, then to receive him again in the Eucharist, to receive his Love once more and let his joy grow in our hearts.

May we let no one steer us away from the Love of God. May we not rely on others to decide for us. We are the only ones responsible for our relationship with Christ.

Immediately after, John tells us exactly what the word “devil” means. The one who divides our relationship with God:
“Whoever sins belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning.” 1 John, chapter 3, verse 8

“The devil is a sinner.” We give the devil many titles, but what characterizes him the most is that he is the best “sinner” of all. It’s not a very rewarding trophy to be the sinner, crowned with excellence.

To recognize oneself as a sinner and to follow Jesus is fine. But the devil decided not to choose the Love of God. He is “the sinner”. He doesn’t recognize or want to receive the Love of God. How difficult it is to understand someone who decides … not to lean with all his being toward, then dive into God’s Love.

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281. Follow or run away

There are two groups of people who follow Jesus. Those who really follow him and those who seek to contradict, to flee what Jesus is proposing. Whoever contradicts Truth rejects Truth. We can contradict a person, but we cannot contradict, without consequences, the Love of God.

People who follow Jesus give him space and time. Jesus needs space and time in our life so that we can observe and live through him. Let’s take some time with Jesus since we don’t know him, take time to discover who Jesus is and we will get to know him better for when we meet in eternity.

There are people who follow Jesus and who do not have open hearts, or they do not use their human intelligence to receive the Love of God. And even the words of Jesus, they will make fun of them, they will understand them in a negative way, they will make them obsolete, without flavour, without taste, without colour, without texture.

The scribes of the group of pharisees, seeing that Jesus eats with sinners and publicans, say to his disciples:
“Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners!” Mark, chapter 2, verse 16
This affirmation casts a doubt about Jesus. Jesus eats and drinks! How can Jesus be God since he eats and drinks? We can see that he is a man! Even worse, he eats with sinners and people of the world, of the public!

They do not know Jesus. They reveal their lack of discernment. Their theology resembles the desert that bypasses the city of Jerusalem. They are going to want to drive Jesus back into the desert, and then consider him dead to their eyes.

They closed their hearts, trapped by a bricked up knowledge gained from the past. They aren’t in the present. Then, to avoid following Jesus, they will also mislead people around them who could be touched by his words and gestures.

While making fun of him, they refuse the advent of Jesus in their hearts and block it from the hearts of their contemporaries. Double fault.

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282. Become childlike

Jesus proclaims:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.” Matthew, chapter 11, verse 25

Adults who are childlike in God know how to spot what is sin in the world from what is not. They also know how to reach people’s hearts, especially through prayer to the Holy Spirit. With him we can reach people’s hearts to improve the world and awaken in them the light that is already there.

The light received from God in some makes it possible to transfer the fire of joy and peace to the hearts of others. For each person who receives the light, its spreading is instantaneous.

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283. We tend to be

“Your piety [love] is like a morning cloud, like the dew that early passes away,” Hosea, chapter 6, verse 4

says God to Hosea and his people … to us too. It is true that we tend to be evasive in our thoughts, distracted in our intentions and selective in our achievements. And we become fugitives, even fearing Love.

We have hurt persons, we had pain too. And we come to believe that even negative ambient thinking has become a reality. We gradually sink into an attractive mud. And the more we are seized by this mud, the more we feel surrounded and comfortable.

It’s as if the mud secures us. But it’s the opposite. Our forces diminish, the tension increases, and we gradually freeze in a contentment that numbs us. We come to believe that that’s life.

We go so far as to believe that God is a tyrant, that he doesn’t take care of us, that he has something else more important to do.

It’s necessary to recognize that we are sinners, that we often have the tendency to leave the narrow road that leads to real happiness. When we are tingling with numbness, it’s not time to wait, it’s the red alert that tells us to turn our face to Jesus.

God does not participate to distance us from him. God doesn’t push us to our failings. God doesn’t waste his time wanting to lose us in the fog or sink us in the mud. Just one look at him and we’re out. He is waiting for us. He is waiting for us as the parent waits with love and open arms for his child who is walking his first steps.

Jesus invites us to look into the depths of our hearts to come to the truth about our intentions.

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284. Getting confused

God is clear. There are those who:
“obeyed not, nor did they pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.” Jeremiah, chapter 7, verse 24

These people recede and move away from the clarity of God. They enter a path of darkness. Their life becomes confused, because they extinguish the Light of God. Their path is filled with congestion and obstacles until they sink and lose themselves.

It is the summit of a closing heart and the remoteness of God to the point of not recognizing him. They will then have to make indescribable efforts to simply live.

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285. Jesus dispels darkness

Jesus came to dispel the darkness within us and offer us his Light. Jesus wants to free us. God reminds people who are listening:
“Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you, so that you may prosper.” Jeremiah, chapter 7, verse 23

We will be happy to the extent that God is the Light of our life:
“Now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart.” Joel, chapter 2, verse 12

It’s the only solution and it’s so simple. Too simple, maybe!
Let’s ask Jesus to take his place in us, guide us, teach us, remove darkness and fill us with his Light, joy and peace so that we become like him, the Father and the Holy Spirit.

God created us. He creates us. He knows us and he wants us to be happy. He creates us with the freedom to choose him or even to refuse his presence. It is the summit of freedom.

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286. Cutting us off from God

Is there anything more distressful than someone who doesn’t listen or doesn’t want to listen, especially when we want goodness for that person?

Not listening to God is cutting us off from his Love. To cut ourselves off from the Love of God is to cut us off from wisdom, light, tenderness, shelter, strength, joy, peace, from the heart, etc. And to cut us off from these vital signs for our life, we build a wall and prevent ourselves from loving. As a crowning, we become deprived to the point of thinking that God isn’t there for us.

The lack of attention to the Love of God leads to harden ourselves and our heart suffers due to the lack of spiritual vital signs of God in us. This brings us to revolt and close ourselves to what the Lord offers us. We live as if God isn’t there anymore.

God tells us that we can go astray:
“They have always been of erring heart, and they do not know my ways. As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter into my rest.’” Hebrews, chapter 3, verses 10b to 11

The most serious danger for someone who believes is to move away from God. The danger for those who do not believe is to remain with their backs turned against the presence of God.

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287. God’s anger

God’s wrath is not like the anger we feel in the world. God’s wrath is nothing but his Love to let us know that we are moving away from him. He only wants to bring us closer to him. We could say without pretense that the “wrath of God” is his kindness for us.

The anger of God does not hurt us, it is benevolent. But it is our distance from his Love that leads us to enter into evil. We cut ourselves off from God’s kindness. We cut ourselves from resting in God, from peace. Then we come to think that God is angry.

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288. Jesus heals us

We can enter the desert of our heart, even if there is noise around us, to hear God. Let’s take time to listen to him and discover, again, the joy he offers us, the kindness he has on us.

May Jesus come to heal us of our doubts, our revolts, our anger and the worst lie to think that God is not with us. Let’s ask as the leper who falls on his knees and begs Jesus:
“‘If you wish, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, ‘I do will it. Be made clean.’” Mark, chapter 1, verses 40 to 41

Let’s discover the silence, turn our heart to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and humbly ask him: “Jesus, cleanse me!”

To let Jesus cleanse us, allows us to become free and to be filled with peace. The more people understand that God is Love and that he is only Love, the more our world will become familiar and united. We will be able to taste and share his Love and live it fully.

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289. God’s will

Our Father, “your will be done”. Faith is lived worldwide. It is the faith of all people of good will. With the Church, some people understood that only Love can reign on the earth. It is these people who help this world to live in maximum peace and hope.

On the other hand, take away the faith of the world in Jesus and it is faced with humanitarian, social, biological, planetary and other important crisis. This crisis of faith becomes a real loss for every person who does not know God.

Because God is the only one who will always lead us to common sense. All that is good and true in the sublime understanding of these terms is from God. God can only be Love. Whatever the religion, as long as God of this religion is really Love, there will be a love evolution everywhere.

Jesus guarantees his Love to all those who open their hearts to him. We only have to welcome him:
“My home will be at home, I will be their God and they will be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, the one who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary will be in their midst forever.” Ezekiel, chapter 37, verses 27 to 28

When God will be welcomed in our midst, in the midst of our heart.

Book: Let’s love God
Normand Thomas
 
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Normandt

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290. To try believers

Some intimidate people to justify that they are not upright, honest. And it’s easy to prove their point because no one is perfect. They also try those who walk after Jesus as others have tried Jesus.

There will be people who will push the righteous onto the wall, rather than check their own heart:
“Let’s see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him.” Wisdom, chapter 2, verse 17

To observe too much the defects of others, people evaluate then devalue themselves. They judge by their criteria, often unfair, about what others say and do. So there are people who will never be satisfied and they will condemn the just.

Why is there a desire to confront the faith of those who follow Jesus? Why not check their own thoughts, words, and gestures, then receive God’s Love again?

Perhaps because these people are not on the road and do not live a personal conversion to Jesus Christ. They claim that others convert to be in God, but they are not attentive to their own faith and the responsibility that goes with it.

Book: Let's be Loved
Normand Thomas
 
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Normandt

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291. Jealousy

A word that is often used by people is the word “jealousy”. This word is simple to say, but it is sad to count the number of people hurt by this word.

Then there is the word “judge”. It is better never to say these words, because all too often we do not know the real meaning of them:
“Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.” James, chapter 3, verse 16

On the other hand, this evil goes away when we are open to the grace of God:
“The wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.” James, chapter 3, verse 17

Let’s deepen these last wise words and recognize them in the people we meet, since God has placed them in them. Let’s recognize these qualities in others, instead of camping on their faults.

Book: Let's be Loved
Normand Thomas
 
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