Which aspects do you think makes a person unique?
Lord, thank You for the love that You poured out on me even though I don’t deserve it. Please fill me with Your love so that I may love my neighbors fully and freely, the way that You love me. Rid my heart and mind of all bitterness and jealousy, and give me new eyes to see others instead through Your love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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Jesus saves calls us to love our neighbors. But we can’t be ambassadors of love if we think, speak, and act with hatred. Deceit, envy, and slander all cast us in opposition to others because they focus our minds on our own self-interests. We must seek the Spirit to overcome the attitudes that lead to judgment and resentment, so that we may exemplify God’s love to those around us.
He Will Strengthen Us!
Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. Psalms 31:24
When we look at the world around us, it can become very easy to become discouraged by what we see. The amount of hatred that runs deep in the hearts of many people, and the constant agony that we see across the world is enough to make a person question life. But as Christians, we don’t need to question life.
We know that all things relating to doom, death and destruction are of the enemy. We know that all things good come from God and he has commissioned us to go into the world and release this good to all mankind. The ultimate good being the gift of salvation.
Preaching the gospel will come with consequences. People will try to discourage us. We will be threatened. People will abandon us. There will be moments where it will feel as if the entire world is against us. But we have to choose to hold on to God and to praise him regardless of what is happening.
God is always good, no matter what we face on this earth. When we remind ourselves of his goodness, it helps us endure the trials and tribulations of life. In times of trouble, we need to turn our eyes to God and seek Him as our refuge. We can only receive comfort and strength from God.
Human beings will always let us down. We will also let people down. The only one who will never let us down is God. His faithfulness is always assured. No matter what. God’s word informs us of the many reasons we can trust God in peace. He has been faithful even before we realized the weight of his love.
Please enjoy this excerpt from our upcoming devotional by Mike Aquilina and Adam Lucas, Feasts 0f Our Fathers: Praying the Church Year with the Early Christians, due out in April 2024.
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Today Christ descends into hell, says this ancient preacher, bringing his victory over death to those already dead.
Reflect: Matthew 12:40, Acts 2:31, Ephesians 4:9, 1 Peter 4:6
Read: What is happening today? A great silence falls over the earth, a great silence and indeed a stillness, because the King sleeps. The earth was fearful and grew still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and raised up all who have slept since the beginning of the world. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld trembles with fear. Yes, he has gone in search of our first father, as a lost sheep. Yes, he wants to visit those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death. He goes to liberate from sorrow the captive Adam and his companion Eve; for he is both God and their son.
The Lord approached them carrying the cross, the weapon that had won his victory. When Adam, the firstborn, saw it, his heart was filled with remorse and cried out to everyone, saying: “My Lord be with you all!” And Christ answered, saying, “And with your spirit!”
He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying:
“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light—I, your God and the son born to you. Now, to you and your offspring in bonds I say by my own authority ‘Come out!’ and to those in darkness ‘Be illumined!’ and to those who are sleeping ‘Arise!’ I say to you: ‘Awake, O sleeper!’ For I did not create you to remain a prisoner in the underworld. Arise from the dead, for I am life for the dead.
“Arise, my creature! Arise, my likeness, you who were created in my image and from whom I was born. Rise! Let us go away, for you are in me and I am in you. Together we form one person, indivisible, for your God is your son. For you, your God became your son. For you, the Lord took the form of a slave. For you the highest heavens came to earth—and under the earth. For you, for the sake of a human being, I became a helpless human being, free among the dead. For you who left the garden, I was delivered to the Jews in a garden and crucified in a garden.
“Behold the spit on my face, which I received to restore the life I once breathed into you. Behold on my jaws the blows I received to restore your deformity back into my image. Behold on my back the marks of the whip that I endured to lift the burden of sin from your back. Behold my hands, fixed in the tree for the sake of you, who maliciously stretched your hand toward the tree. Behold my feet, driven well into the tree, because your feet had maliciously run to the tree of disobedience, on the sixth day when your judgment was delivered.
“For your rebirth and the restoration of paradise I have labored to exhaustion. I slept on the cross, and a sword pierced my side: all for you who slumbered in paradise and delivered Eve from your side. My wounded side has healed the pain of yours. Let my sleep awaken you from yours in the underworld. The spear that wounded me has turned the spear from you. Arise, let us leave here. The enemy led you to leave the earthly paradise; yet I do not restore you to paradise but to be enthroned in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was the symbol of life; but, behold, now I am your life. I ordered the cherubim to guard you as slaves; now the cherubim must worship you as divine. You hid from God as if you were naked; but now here you are hidden within the naked God. The cherubic throne awaits you. Its bearers are at the ready. The bridal suite is ready, the banquet plates are set. The eternal dwellings and mansions are prepared. The treasuries of good things were opened. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from everlasting
Remember: Christ descends into the netherworld today to rescue the souls of the righteous trapped by original sin.
Pray: Victorious God, you went down to the realm of the dead to rise again in glory. By the power of your resurrection, bring all our loved ones who have passed to new life with you.
The Harrowing of Hell
We profess that Jesus “descended into hell” before rising from the dead. But how can God go to hell, which by definition is the state of separation from God? We in the modern era mean something different by “hell” than the common usage of the early Church. The Creed is saying that Christ went to the realm of the dead before his resurrection. Called Hades in Greek and Sheol in Hebrew, this realm of the dead was the collective afterlife for both the good and the bad. Jesus’ passion and resurrection unlocked the gates of heaven for the souls of the righteous, which previously had been closed to all people due to Adam’s sin. Jesus shows us in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that there were differences in the fate of the good and the bad even before his resurrection, as the righteous Lazarus goes to the bosom of Abraham, whereas the unrighteous rich man is sent to a place of torment. But even this “bosom of Abraham” wasn’t heaven, and although there was some comfort there, it was not a place of true eternal rest.
Jesus went to this realm of the dead on Holy Saturday. True man, he experienced death and the afterlife like others. But unlike the other righteous, Jesus goes to Hades as a conqueror. He preaches the gospel to the dead, frees deserving souls from their prison, and brings them into the perfect and lasting happiness of heaven.
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