Stolen identity

Several weeks ago I attended an excellent talk on digital security by my son, Tim.  He told us about various threats that come through the Internet, including viruses, malware, identity theft, stealing  personal data, and various other evils lurking in the cloud.  I left the talk with a headache and went home and signed up for some software to protect my identity.

Clearly there is evil in the world today.  Sometimes it might attack through your computer.   Or it might even hurt you physically, like the Christians who are being killed in the Middle East.  Or, you may experience spiritual warfare as you try to live a holy life.  We can try to protect ourselves from these evils, and certainly we should.  But we can't eliminate all of the risks in life today.  We'd have to go off by ourselves into the woods and live as a hermit to get away from these things.

Instead, we should worry more about our spiritual identity being stolen than our digital identity.   We receive our spiritual identity as a child of God at baptism.  This is strengthened  when we are filled with the Holy Spirit at confirmation.  These two sacraments place indelible marks on our souls that mark us eternally as children of God.  But, the devil, the great deceiver, tries to convince us that we aren't worthy to be God's children or that these sacraments don't matter.  He will tell us that God doesn't love us anymore.  The devil lies to us just like he lied to Adam and Eve in the garden.   

Ultimately, we have to put our trust in someone or something.   For us, as Christians, Jesus is the answer.  By his death and resurrection, Jesus has already defeated the devil.  So, we know that he has already won the battle over evil.  We just have to trust Him.  By ourselves, we can't win this battle.  But with Jesus on our side, victory is assured.

"We walk by faith," St Paul says in the second reading.  What is it to walk through life by religious faith?  Sound religious faith is saying "I believe you" to God communicating himself and his truths to us through his church.  If God kept silent and hidden, we'd be helpless, like children without instruction from their mother.  We couldn't have faith if we had no word from God to believe.  

To make faith possible, God communicates himself and his truths to us, and assists us in understanding them.  We can't do it unaided.  We need the help of his Holy Spirit shining in our minds.  We call that help grace.  So faith is our response to God communicating with us.  We say to God, "I believe you," when he gives himself and his truth to each of us, the way he gave his Son to the whole world. 

God has revealed himself by his presence, by his powerful deeds and miracles as recorded in the Bible, by his word through the prophets, and finally by the birth and life of his Son.  Jesus brings God to visibility, revealing himself to us in love. 

Whenever I give a homily on Sunday, I have my wife read it first.  She usually says the same thing: "where is the joy in that?"  She believes that Jesus' message for us is one of joy and my homilies should reflect that joy.

Today's second reading from St Paul: "we walk by faith and not by sight", is a call to joy.  It tells us not to be overwhelmed by the many problems that we see around us and to focus on our faith.  It doesn't matter if our computer has a virus and our identity has been stolen.   It doesn't matter if we are struggling financially or have health problems.  It doesn't matter if ISIS has conquered more of the Middle East or if our Supreme Court has made another ridiculous ruling.  These things are only temporary, things of this world.  What really matters is that Jesus is Lord, that we are his brothers and sisters, that he died for us, and that he loves us, no matter what.  All we have to do, is to continue to walk by faith, to continue to follow Jesus, and our eternal destiny is assured.

St Peter, in his first letter, expresses this perfectly:  "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you.  Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you.  Be sober, be watchful.  Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  Resist him, firm in your faith.  And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, and strengthen you."

Our answer to the evil in the world today is faith.  It is a trust in Jesus who loves us and has won victory over evil.  If we live our lives following Jesus, we can be certain that our eternal destiny will be with him where we will be safe from evil forever.

Be joyful.  The battle is won.  We are on the winning team.  We even carry marks on our soul which identify us as God's kids.  Keep the faith.  After we have suffered a little while, we will experience eternal peace and joy.