“And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.” These hope-filled words of the author of the letter of St. John offer us both great consolation and a great challenge.
Through our baptism in Jesus Christ, we are united with Christ and have the opportunity to live in Christ so that one day we will live with Christ forever. Every day we have to confirm our desire to be united with Christ. We have to confirm our desire to live in Jesus Christ. We confirm our desire to live in Jesus Christ when we conform our lives to his life; when our lives reflect the values that shaped his life. When we choose compassion over indifference to the needs of others, we confirm our desire to live in Christ. When we honor and respect the dignity of all human life, through our opposition to abortion on demand, capital punishment, and our insistence on insuring that all persons have what they need to live in dignity, we confirm our desire to live in Christ. When we choose forgiveness and reconciliation over vengeance and retribution, we confirm our desire to live in Jesus Christ. When we are faithful to God in prayer, when we participate regularly and actively in the sacraments, when we allow our lives to be shaped by the teachings of Christ and the teachings of the Church, we confirm our desire to live in Jesus Christ. When we confirm our desire to live in Jesus Christ, we grow in our intimacy with him and grow in our confidence of sharing in his resurrection from the dead.
The world will not always welcome the witness of our lives when we choose to live in Jesus Christ. To live in Jesus Christ is to reject the values of this world and to conform ourselves to the values of Jesus Christ. Throughout history, persons have suffered greatly for the sake of Christ and his Gospel. We, too, can expect opposition to our witness but as the author of the letter of St. John reminds us we have the confidence of our victory over this world. Death is not the end for us, but rather the beginning of the fullness of life in our God.
Let us live in Christ so that we live in the confidence of our victory over this world!

Fr. Mark Hallinan, S.J