St. Benedict Anglican Church San Antonio

On a hot and sticky evening in Philadelphia, July 2, 1776, after much debate and deliberation, the Continental Congress voted to declare independence from England. John Adams went to his room and wrote a letter to Abigale his wife, who was at home in Boston. In his letter he wrote, “The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable of epochs in the history of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.”

The Holy Spirit convicts people of righteousness by enforcing the absolute standard of God’s character and holiness. Apart from a standard of righteousness, there can be no accurate measure of sin, which is any thought, word, action, or attitude that falls short of God’s standard of holiness and righteousness. There’s an infinite gap between God’s righteousness and our sinfulness, which we cannot bridge by our own efforts, but only by Christ and Christ alone. We need that conviction that leads to repentance. For more information about the church, please visit us at https://stbenedictanglicansa.org

Standing up for what is right can be hard, and sometimes, people will mistreat us for what we believe. However, it’s one thing to suffer persecution for what we believe, and for doing the right thing, but it’s quite another to face the consequences for acting like a jerk or for unwise choices that we have made. We’re all broken one way or the other, and we need Jesus. There is a difference. We must always remember that it’s Christ we represent in the arena of ideas, especially when it concerns the pro-life position, as we make the most of every opportunity to love our neighbor as ourselves, while we engage in both our heavenly and earthly calling, namely evangelism and disciple making right where the Lord placed us in this chaotic world, to show love and kindness just like Jesus, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Lk 19:10. Amen+

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia! Such an amazing declaration grounded in the simple Truth that our Lord Jesus Christ conquered sin, death, and the devil. Our faith hinges on that central truth, which is a fact of history. Yet St. Peter, the other disciple, and Mary Magdalene, did not completely understand what actually happened. Their Lord whom they followed, and with whom they broke bread, died on the cross, and Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus bound his body and laid it in a tomb. The women simply returned to apply spices to the body, as was the custom of the day, to cover the odor of decomposition out of respect. No doubt they were still in a fog of grief, fear, doubt, and defeat. This fog clouded their vision of what happened when they saw the empty tomb.

In the liturgy for blessing of Palms, we read the account of the triumphal entry in St. Matthew 21. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (St. Mt 21:7–9). The people praised Jesus as He passed by, but many of them praised him for two reasons. First, because of his miracles. He had healed the sick, raised the dead. They praised Him because he was serving them, and Second, because they saw in Jesus a way to be politically delivered from the Romans and set free from Roman rule, just as the Israelites were delivered from Egypt by Yahweh through their deliverer Moses. Their praise was tempered with their attitude about Jesus, “What can you do for me?”