The conqueror

Sometimes the world can seem pretty overwhelming.

Sometimes in our personal lives we feel that we are going to be crushed by events and forces out of our control.

Sometimes we may feel certain that selfishness, hedonism, materialism, and militant atheism have gained so much power in the world today that it is only a matter of time before people of faith are driven into the modern equivalent of the catacombs.

But the last verse of today’s first reading (1 John 4:19-5:4) and the opening verse of tomorrow’s first reading give us mighty words of hope:

For whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.
And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.
Who indeed is the victor over the world
but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

How can we, small and ineffectual as we are, be conquerors?

First, by not being conquered ourselves.

Faith in and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ gives us an unbreakable connection to the eternal life and love of God that extends beyond the confines and threats of this world.

If by the grace of God we remain strong in Christ, then we are unconquerable. As we hear in a traditional translation of Job 19:25-26:

For I know that my redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
And though... worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God...

When we are strong in Christ, we cannot be conquered, no matter what may be done to us or what we may suffer.

But we are not conquerors in Christ simply by remaining unconquered: in Christ we conquer the world because even the worst things that happen in the world, even though we may not be able to understand how, will be set right by the infinite power of God before the judgment seat of eternity.

Indeed, that is why, as Pope Benedict wrote in his last encyclical, the doctrine of the Last Judgment is really a doctrine of hope, not fear: for God in his infinite mercy, justice, and power will indeed set all things right in eternity.

No matter what may happen in our lives or in our world, may we always be filled with the grace of God and the gift of faith so that by the love and power of our Lord Jesus Christ we may conquer.