Sunday 11th May – 4th Sunday of Easter

Reflection: 1 Peter 2: 20-25

LIVE FOR HOLINESS

The call to holiness is extended to you and I each day. Rather than being restricted to priests and religious alone, it involves all who have been baptised. In baptism, we have been cleansed from all sin and become children of God and heirs to His kingdom (John 3:5; Romans 6:4). Far from being an arrival, baptism is a departure from the life of sin and the beginning of the journey of salvation, a journey of holiness. To be “holy” is to be set apart because of one’s connection to God. Hence, the call to holiness requires that our way of living as God’s children be different from the corrupt world around us.

We can look to Jesus as an example of holiness. Today’s reading tells us of how Jesus suffered and did not complain or retaliate, innocent as He was. He simply put His trust in God, the righteous God (1 Peter 2: 21-23). Christ has borne our faults so that we can die to our faults and live for holiness (1 Peter 2: 24). We who have been baptised into Christ have been buried with Him by our baptism into His death so that as Christ was raised up by the power of the God who raised Him from the dead we too might walk in newness of life. Hence, in holiness, we die to ourselves, to our human nature so that the fullness of Christ’s life may be revealed in us.

Dear friends, there is no real Christianity without holiness. Without holiness no man shall see God (Hebrews 12:14). Let us turn to Jesus, the shepherd of our souls today and ask Him to enkindle in us the desire for holiness. Let us spend time in prayer, frequent the Holy Eucharist and the Sacrament of reconciliation as these will fill us with the sanctifying grace we need to be holy.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, you have set an example for me to follow. Pleases fill me with a hunger for holiness and help me to cooperate with the grace you give me each new day. Amen.

KNOW YOUR FAITH: YOUCAT 342 – Are we all supposed to become “saints”?

Yes. The purpose of our life is to be united with God in love and to correspond entirely to God’s wishes. We should allow God “to live his life in us” (Mother Teresa). That is what it means to be holy: a “saint”.

“Holiness is not the luxury of a few people, but a simple duty for you and me”. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

HIDE A TREASURE: “But as He who has called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:15-16 RSV-CE

Readings for today: Acts 2:14, 36 -41; Psalm 23: 1-6; 1 Peter 2: 20-25; John 10: 1-10