Stop Standing Around

They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen Him going into heaven." Acts 1:11
If we juxtapose the angels' words to what Jesus had told his disciples in Matthew's Gospel in what we call "the Great Commission", we can conclude that what the angels were saying to the disciples; holds for us to this day. In essence "stop standing around and do something". Christianity is not a passive philosophy or live style. Jesus did not live up on a mountain parsing out philosophical concepts. Too often today we stand around looking at this immoral, decadent society that chooses evil over good and expect God to do something about it. We stand around, say nothing, side with evildoers and complain that world is not right. Standing around is not living as Christ lived. Standing around is not Christianity. By the power of the Holy Spirit and by the authority of the Church we have the moral obligation to do good and renounce evil. We have the moral obligation to change hearts and minds, not by being argumentative or by name calling, or by ignoring evil. We have the Truth in Christ Jesus, a truth that cannot be refuted, a Truth that brings Light to darkness. We have a moral obligation to lift the Light to the highest place and not hide it. This cannot be accomplished by standing around. Last Sunday I heard an excellent sermon. The priest was talking about Pope John XXIII, during the Second Vatican Council. The Pope was asked the question "what is the meaning to life?" That question could be discussed and debated by moral theologians and philosophers to the end of time. Pope John XXIII answered the question with the same response that I learned from the old Baltimore Catechism. "to know, love and serve God in this lifetime so that I may be happy and spend eternity with Him in the next." Pope John XXIII went further on to say and to "show others how to know, love and serve God..." This can't be accomplished if we just stand around. Pray today on the Feast of the Ascension that the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, The Advocate, bring to each of us the grace to live as Christ lived, to be passionate, active, faithful, and obedient servants of God the Father, so as to bring glory to His name.