Goal of Your Faith

Saint Peter in the second reading says, “ you rejoice with indescribable and glorious joy as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1Peter 1:9) Read it again! I mean, really take time to read each word to allow it to sink into your soul. It is scripture passages such as this one that make me want to just sit in the words for a while.

In my scripture study group, I call it marinating. Like if I wanted to give some flavor to meat or wanted to tenderize it, I would make a marinade for the meat to sit in for a few hours. This is something I feel we should do more of with the scripture. Take a phrase like the one from Saint Peter and allow it to marinate us with all of the flavors and goodness it holds so we can loosen up and become more open, more tender to the message within!

So then to break this one down, even the first word, YOU speaks to my core. It says, “hey, wake up, I’m talking to you!” When reading scripture, the beginning of the passage I like to see who is talking and to whom they are speaking. This practice gives me perspective.

Then the next word is REJOICE! Well, this is all well and good, we have been rejoicing all week since Jesus rose from the dead on Easter! But this is a different type of rejoicing, there is a specific adjective connected to it…INDESCRIBABLE. Yikes! It’s like God is speaking through Peter to tell us we are not celebrating enough for the miracle and gift that has been given. The message to me is clearly, “hey, wake up, I’m talking to you! Get out there and rejoice with all your might because all of your sins have been forgiven and you will spend the rest of your life with me!!!”

As though this isn’t enough to get you off the couch, Peter continues to identify our rejoicing shouldn’t just be indescribable, but it must be full of glorious joy! How am I supposed to express glorious joy? I imagine the type of action that is equivalent to the phrase “rejoice with indescribable and glorious joy” is similar to how one celebrates and cheers when you win a Metal in the Olympics or you make a basket from half court with only seconds left on the game clock to win the game. These moments of indescribable and glorious joy is the type of rejoicing Jesus’ sacrifice and God’s gift to us deserves.

There is a Toby Mac song where on of the verses he says, Jesus won the Guinness. The point of the phrase is to say, Jesus broke the record, no one else will ever come close to doing for us what he did for us. This is what Peter is saying as well so get up and celebrate!

Further, Peter is saying we must have this kind of excitement and fervor as we work to attain the goal of our faith. Do you have a faith goal? I imagine this is something many people don’t have nor work towards. I imagine during Lent and sometimes Advent people set goals to achieve during those seasons. The choose things like going to daily Mass, praying devotions, or listening to only Christian music. Somehow I don’t think this is what Saint Peter is referring to when he says it in the scripture.

What gives me that idea? Well the next phrase, “the salvation of your souls” makes me think adding an extra daily devotion to my practice doesn’t even come close to showing my gratitude for Jesus’ death and resurrection. He’s talking about my soul! I am certainly not worthy of the gift of salvation but it was given to me anyways!

Now to be clear. I am not saying here that the scripture is telling me that I have to somehow pay back or earn the forgiveness of sin or my salvation. NO! The victory has already been won and the trophy went to Jesus and he is sharing it with all of us. It’s kind of like when a team wins the Super Bowl. The team gets the Trophy but each of the players, coaches and staff within the organization gets a ring. We already have these things…I’m saying that I’d like to pay it forward.

The goal of my faith? Well, after spending time marinating the words of scripture, I think my goal has been made clear. It’s to rejoice in the wonderful gifts given to me by living joyfully, seeking to celebrate each moment and live each to the fullest I possibly can and do whatever I can to grow in my faith so I can feed my soul. I am a sinner but I have been forgiven; I will die on earth but have been given eternal life…this is indescribable without my faith in God my creator, Jesus my savior or the Holy Spirit my companion.