More Than a Memorized Verse

Pearl: God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life. -John 3:16

This may be the most well-known verse in the Bible - from the guy with the rainbow-colored afro who held up a “John 3:16” sign at NFL games back in the 70s to the fact that in the Protestant world, this is usually the first verse you memorize as a kid. Although I grew up in a marginally Baptist family at best (meaning we rarely went to church and I had never been baptized), even I memorized this verse. It was, in fact, the only verse I memorized. The funny thing is that when I started dating my wife, who grew up in a family very devoted and active in their Catholic faith, I remember that she was impressed that I could quote John 3:16 from memory. That alone seemed to convince her that I was a “good Christian.” Boy, did I ever have her fooled. She knew infinitely more about the Christian faith and Scripture than I did, but since Catholics don’t normally memorize Scripture, she thought me having memorized John 3:16 was amazing. 

Thank goodness that these truly good Christians (my wife and her family) took me in and showed me what being a Christian was really all about. Through them and other Catholic friends, I learned that our faith in Christ isn’t so much about memorizing verses so we can impress people with our biblical knowledge. It’s about living the faith given to us by Jesus that is expressed through the Bible, Sacred Tradition, and the teachings of Jesus and His Church. Their faith was real. They didn’t put on airs. Their faith felt tangible to me, and they lived it. I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but this was the kind of faith I was looking for. It was something I had felt in my heart from time to time, but it was fleeting, and I had never considered it important enough to focus my life around. In my defense, I was a teenager at the time. 

Continuing with today’s Gospel - I am sad to say that my family and I were exactly the types of people Jesus was speaking of when He said, “God sent his son into the world as the light of the world to save the world, but the people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward light, so that his works might not be exposed.” 

Thanks be to God, after I was received into the Church at the Easter Vigil on Saturday, April 10th, 1982, all that started to change. As for my parents, even though their marriage ended in divorce later in life, they both made God a much higher priority and began to live their faith in a way they hadn’t in the past. I thank God for that. 

We all have choices to make in life and unfortunately, sometimes we make bad ones. We’re so easily deceived and often just go with the flow and walk the broad road to destruction and miss the narrow gate to Jesus. We choose evil over good, the darkness of the world over the light of Christ. We live in a world that encourages this, that encourages us to focus our lives on ourselves instead of God - a world in which living a life with Jesus as the most important person in our life is seen as ridiculous. 

The good news is that we can overcome all of these negative influences and grow in our relationship with Jesus by spending more time and energy focused on Him, by doing things like going to Mass daily, participating in the Sacrament of Confession regularly, diving deep into the Scriptures every day, and truly seeking to learn what is taught by our Church and why. I know that may sound impossible, that there’s no way we can do all that, but it’s not. That’s what the devil wants us to think. And thanks be to God - it’s not about us being good enough or trying hard enough either. We can’t do it on our own. All that does is discourage us and wear us out until eventually, we just give up. The answer to living the life Jesus wants to give us is found in surrendering our lives to Him - body, mind, and soul - and resting in His love and mercy. We all know that living a life in Christ is not easy (it’s against everything our world and culture teaches), but in doing so, it doesn’t take long until the change in our hearts and our love of Christ starts to show in the life we live and love that flows from Christ to us, and then on to others.

Today, we remember Pope St. Pius V. He grew up in Italy and as a young boy, was a shepherd. He entered the Dominican order at age 14 and after ordination, taught philosophy and theology. He served as pope from 1566 to 1572. A lot was going on in the Church at that time. The Protestant Reformation and the Council of Trent had just taken place, and St. Pius saw his main objective as the continuation of the massive program of reform for the Church (in particular, the full implementation of the decrees of the Council of Trent). He published the Roman Catechism, the revised Roman Breviary, and the Roman Missal. 

He was also the pope during the Battle of Lepanto (the naval battle that saved the Christian West in Europe from defeat at the hands of the Ottoman Turks who were Muslims). The battle occurred on October 7th, 1571 - the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Pope St. Pius V encouraged the faithful to pray the Rosary for victory during the battle and, facing overwhelming odds, through the intercession of the Blessed Mother, the victory was won. 

May we, like Pope St. Pius V, have the courage to stand up for our faith in the face of attacks and criticism, turning to our Blessed Mother to intercede for us that she may ask her Son to lead us to peace, healing, and victory in Christ.

Amen.