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-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org>>
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at Sunday 11:00am
Litmus test!
We live in the era of empiricism and scientific method. We are all familiar with the analysis that can be done on anything: a liquid solution, the particulate matter in the air, the radioactivity in an object or area, the sugar in one's blood, the lumens of light in a room. Such analysis has called our attention to the invisible yet ascertainable quality of things.
St. James seems to have applied such discernment or empiricism to the quality of our faith and the efficaciousness of the Word of God. People of faith can discern, judge, or ascertain the efficaciousness of the word of God by examining the morality, righteousness, justice, goodness of one's works.
Some have suggested that this attitude of St. James is a corrective to the disengagement or dismissive attitude of St. Paul to the law and his emphasis on the freedom of the Spirit.
This has certainly, from the Reformation onward, been a great debate among religious people: the connection of faith to righteousness, morality, ethics, community, good works. Can we do an analysis of our faith and detect in it justice, righteousness, ethical behavior, compassion, peace?
Can our Christian lives be tested, "testify" to the effective work of the Word of God in our lives.? Is the litmus test of the Word in our lives a life of justice and compassion?
