What Must I Do?

In today’s reading the jailer asks Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” I often ask the same question. Wondering what I should be doing. And the words that Paul and Silas spoke to the jailer hold true for each of us, “’Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved.’ So they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his house. He took them in at that hour of the night and bathed their wounds; then he and all the family were baptized at once. He brought them up into his house and provided a meal and with his household rejoiced at having come to faith in God.” (Acts 16:30-34)The one thing that the jailer had to do was to be open to the word of God.  We aren’t saved because of anything that we do. We are saved because out of love for us, God sent his only Son to die for us. He took our sins upon himself and destroyed death forever.

Being a disciple of Christ calls us to action. We are called to be his hands and feet and to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. But these actions don’t save us they are part of what it means to be a disciple. In yesterday’s gospel Jesus tells us to keep his commandments and that by doing so we will remain in his love. Many people have rejected the commandments or treat them as irrelevant in our society today. They see them as just a list of things that we can’t do and we don’t like being told what we can or cannot do. But the commandments help us to live fully. They help us to love others as Christ loves us. Jesus even expounds on them, explaining that unjustified anger equates with murder and that lust is mental and emotional adultery. Being a disciple requires our entire being to be in union with Christ, all of our thoughts and actions should lead us to Christ. Jesus tells us that he remains in his Father’s love because he kept his Father’s commandments. He wants our joy to be complete. He reminds us again that, “It was not you who chose me but I who chose you.” (John 15:16) He chose us because he loves us, but we have to be open to his love.