Do not pass out, there is hope

Good morning, happy Monday and blessings.

The Gospel for day comes from Matthew 28: 8-15. It is a narrative where a group of women have an encounter with the risen Jesus.

I want you to note the phrase "He is going before you to Galilee."Historically, Jesus did exactly what He promised and went before His disciples to Galilee. But how does He go before us today?

Certainly, the most important way that Jesus goes before us is His physical resurrection. We know that the resurrected Jesus had a physical body because His followers were able to touch Him, and He shared meals with them. And because Jesus has gone before us, those of us who have put our faith in Him can be assured that one day we will also experience a physical resurrection and be given new bodies that will never get sick, or even tired. And knowing that gives us hope right now, no matter what we’re going through, because we can be confident of a glorious future that far outweighs any suffering we might be going through today.

But the fact that Jesus went ahead of His disciples to Galilee demonstrates that Jesus also goes before us in our normal daily lives. Jesus experienced the same kinds of temptations, sorrows, persecution and physical suffering that we face in our lives and the Bible tells us that He endured all that on our behalf because of the joy that came from fulfilling the plan that God had given Him – to make it possible for us to be made right with God through faith in Him.

That means that whatever you’re going through in your life right now, Jesus has already gone before you. He knows personally what you’re experiencing and He both has the desire and the ability to help you persevere and even have victory in that situation if you’ll let Him.

Jesus goes before us and gives us hope in our everyday lives. He not only goes before us, but then when we arrive, He remains beside us and He helps us to endure the pain that we often need to go through in order to become more like Him. And the reason we can have confidence that Jesus still does that is because He is alive!

Today I have a special invitation. In this process of Jesus going before us and the reality of Coronavirus I would like that we could be more human when we analyze the painful reality of how difficult it is to stay at home for those who do not have a home, for those who are imprisoned or for those who live in a shelter. How difficult it is for migrants or those people who use drugs to stay at home.

I continue to pray and act so that the government understands that this matter is much more complicated, but more important, that we as disciples of Jesus and as a prophetic church that walks with the people understand that we need to go before, making a way, not criticizing or rejecting, but understanding and loving. Let us remember that Jesus also rose for them and that our responsibility is to present them a message of hope. Perhaps it is in this person, brother or sister, where or with whom Jesus is waiting for me.

Blessings

Fr. Luis+