Are we successful Christians?
It is not an easy question to answer. What is the measure of success for the followers of Christ? Is it enough to avoid big sins and make it to Mass on Sundays? That wasn’t the criteria that Christ gave us. He put the bar higher, because he loves us, and when you love someone, you always seek the very best for them. You are not satisfied with mediocrity. Christ didn’t command us just to go to Church and be nice. It doesn’t stop there. Christ commanded us to love one another as he loved us, and to go out and make disciples of all nations. That’s what Christ did. He was successful at it. And what did his success bring him? Misunderstanding, persecution, rejection, unpopularity. He went around doing good, tiring himself out healing the sick, casting demons out of the possessed, comforting the troubled, giving himself to others out of love, and what did he get for it? All the influential and powerful people – the Pharisees and Sadducees – started calling him a rabblerouser and spreading rumors that he was a drunkard and an agent of the devil. He went around preaching the truth, the truth about sin and salvation. He preached it fearlessly, eloquently, lovingly, with his words and with his example. And what did he get for it? His own townspeople rejected him; they tried to throw him off a cliff! Christ fulfilled his life mission, but it didn’t make him popular. If we are to fulfill our life mission, we need to be ready to suffer similar consequences. We can measure our success as Christians not by how comfortable our faith is making us, but by how uncomfortable it is making us.