Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Brothers and sisters:
Whoever is in Christ is a new creation:
the old things have passed away;
behold, new things have come.
And all this is from God,
who has reconciled us to himself through Christ 
and given us the ministry of reconciliation, 
namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, 
not counting their trespasses against them 
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
So we are ambassadors for Christ,
as if God were appealing through us.
We implore you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. 2 Cor 5:17-21

Today, St. Paul gives us a Christian identity.  Do you recognize any of the traits in you?  We were reconciled through Jesus by God and St. Paul says, “we are given the ministry of reconciliation”.  Once again, that forgiveness thing comes back to us.  Priests have a very special vocation to the ministry of reconciliation.  We who are not ordained are called to forgive one another.  God does not “count their trespasses against them and entrusted to us the message of reconciliation”.  We are not to keep a list in our head of all the sins our brothers/sisters, classmates, parents, spouses, and friends have sinned against us because God does not do so with ours.  How would we ever get to heaven where no stain of sin enters if God kept our sins on paper and nailed us on judgment day?  Yet, this is how my mind works.  Forgiving is easy forgetting is hard especially when anger wells up inside of me when that person has done something to hurt me.  God is amazing, I am weak. God’s grace can help us through everything and when we learn to forget we have less worry and anxiety and more peace and joy-the things of heaven.  Next, we are called to be “ambassadors for Christ”.  An ambassador by definition is “an accredited diplomat sent by a country as its official representative to a foreign country or a person who acts as a representative or promoter of a specified activity (in this case the message of reconciliation and Truth-evangelize).  Google definition.  ”As if God were appealing through us”, this is where God DOES need us.  God can do anything, but through His love for us, He has chosen us as the instruments of His love.  He appeals to us to be Him for others.  Again, when you walk into a room ask others if they need any help, pray unceasingly, and forgive.  Allow others to see Christ in you.  We are called to be ambassadors of Christ to those in the room with you, those at school or your workplace, in your parish-get involved!!!!!, and in your community.  You have all kinds of time, when God asks you to do something and you are doing it for Him, there is plenty of time.  We have a very short time to be that instrument when compared to eternity.  Start forgiving and bringing the Good News to others by changing yourself and allowing others to see Christ in you.

Today’s challenge: “For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Cor 5:21  Be a servant, empty yourself or become poor in some area of your life like Christ did for all of humanity but most importantly just for you, so that you could become righteous and have the gift of eternal life.  Don’t waste the opportunity to give back to God what He has given you.  Empty self, put on Christ and allow the power of the Cross to shine in your life.  The greatest message of that cross is reconciliation.  Forgive.

Be a servant, become a saint!

​Christian YOLO