Last Updated on October 19, 2022 by GMC
Saturday After Epiphany
1 John 5:14-21
…yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.
Galatians 2:20
We know that no one begotten by God sins; but the one begotten by God he protects, and the evil one cannot touch him.
1 John 5:18
Victory in Christ is real, St. Paul and St. John attest. Ongoing conversion and transformation into Christ buries the “old self” (Romans 6:6) and makes us a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
How was the sinless, only-begotten Son of God “protected” and “untouched” by “the evil one”? By insult? Scourging? Crowning of thorns? Betrayal? Abandonment by friends? Crucifixion? Hardly.
The heart, mind, and spirit of the man Jesus Christ was “protected” by the Spirit in the Father, and “untouched” by evil, in that love prevailed over hatred to the very end. No insult, whip, thorn, or betrayal dislodged Jesus from his stillness in the Trinity of Love to return insult for insult, tit for tat, or evil for evil. Caving in to loveless retaliation is the ultimate defeat of the human spirit.
Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.
Luke 23:34
Divine mercy is the ultimate triumph of Christ, the Light of the World.