With Christ We Have Conquered The World

1 Jn.5:5-13 & Mk.1:6-13

There have been ambitious men who have wanted to rule the world. Immediately there comes to mind the names of Alexander the Great, Caesar Augustus, Napoleon and Hitler. “Who can overcome the world?” asks St John. You never thought your name could be numbered among them! For St. John answer his question, “Only the man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” He adds to this when he says that “God has given us eternal life and this life is His Son.” With Jesus, who is God, we can conquer the world.

Of course, John is talking about a different kind of conquest than the one desired by ambitious men, not the world as we know it but the world of sin, evil and eternal death. Jesus won this victory, not like Hitler by shedding the innocent blood of millions, but shedding His own innocent blood at Calvary. Every time we come to Mass Jesus renews this bloodshed when He says, “This is the cup of My blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant.” This covenant is God’s promise that eternal life is ours if we seek it. This covenant is sealed in the blood of Christ, the same blood that we partake of at Holy Communion. People have named Alexander ‘the Great’ because of his conquests of peoples in battles, but God has made us great through the conquest of death by the shedding of the blood of His Son.

Confirmation that Jesus was, indeed, the Son of God came from none other than God the Father. For in the Gospel we read “No sooner had Jesus come up out of the water that John saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit, like a dove, descending on Him. And a voice came from Heaven, “You are My Son, the Beloved; My favour rests on You.”

There we have it. All that Jesus did is true for He is none other than God’s Son.

Jesus in following You we need have no worries, because You are God’s Son and only You will lead us safely to the Father and our heavenly home, if we lead lives worthy of such a high calling.