{"id":7043623,"date":"2026-08-22T07:47:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T07:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/god-works-through-us-ocn\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T07:47:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T07:47:23","slug":"god-works-through-us-ocn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7043623","title":{"rendered":"God Works THROUGH Us | OCN"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast\u2014unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>I Corinthians 15: 1-11 (Epistle from the Twelfth Sunday)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A cursory glance over some of the Epistles of St. Paul might make the reader think that he is somewhat arrogant.\u00a0 After all, who is this one man, who had been a great sinner, persecuting the early church, to be writing to us in such a manner? \u00a0The fact is that we are all sinners who are capable of repentance.\u00a0 And Saint Paul made as big of a repentance as anyone\u2014he went from church persecutor to church leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He took his role very seriously.\u00a0 He preached with passion and zeal.\u00a0 Today, he would probably be criticized as crazy or \u201coff the deep end.\u201d\u00a0 But at his time, his charisma and enthusiasm helped a new church take root in many cities.\u00a0 Because his charisma was contagious.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In today\u2019s Epistle, he reminds us almost in a summary way, how he preached the Gospel.\u00a0 He warns people to hold fast to the Gospel, for it is the message of the Gospel and our holding on to it with faith that will save us.\u00a0 And a large part of our salvation will be based on putting what we have heard into action.\u00a0 Because people didn\u2019t read, St. Paul was very succinct in summarizing the message of the Gospel in a few short verses\u2014that Christ died for our sins, was buried, was raised from the dead and that He appeared to many people.\u00a0 His reference to <em>\u201caccording to the Scriptures\u201d<\/em> does not refer to the New Testament, which had not been put together yet, but refers to Jesus being the Christ and fulfilling the Old Testament Scriptures concerning the Messiah.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He references Jesus appearing \u201c<em>To more than five hundred brethren at one time, many of whom are still alive,<\/em>\u201d to say that there were still eyewitnesses to His post-Resurrection appearances that were alive and could testify first-hand what they saw.\u00a0 He wrote about Jesus appearing to all the Apostles, and lastly how He appeared to St. Paul, on the road to Damascus where he was converted.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Saint Paul owns up to his own shortcomings, admitting his sin of persecuting the church.\u00a0 He calls himself unfit to be an Apostle.\u00a0 However, he accepts God\u2019s grace in forgiving his sins and takes that gift and makes something of it\u2014he becomes the greatest of the Apostles.\u00a0 There are two lessons here.\u00a0 The first is that when we receive God\u2019s grace of forgiveness, through the sacrament of confession, we are supposed to be able to forgive ourselves also.\u00a0 There are many times when people have said to me \u201cI can never forgive myself.\u201d\u00a0 This is not correct.\u00a0 If God can forgive us, and we believe that God can forgive us, then we must forgive ourselves, since He is greater than us.\u00a0 The second lesson here is that in order to receive the grace of forgiveness from God, one must show a sincere repentance.\u00a0 And repentance means change.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t supposed to be so moved by the magnanimous forgiveness of God that we do nothing.\u00a0 We are supposed to be moved to repent of our sins and to take action in furthering the message of God, even though we have the stain of sin.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Saint Paul says that God\u2019s grace towards him was not in vain, that he is doing something with that grace.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And while Saint Paul may sound a little boastful about his work ethic, he is quick to point out that it is the grace of God at work in him.\u00a0 He says that it doesn\u2019t matter which disciples helped convert their hearts, only that it is important that our hearts are converted to Christ.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The grace of God can work through each of us if we allow it to.\u00a0 It is not only priests that have the ability or the responsibility to impart Christ\u2019s message to others.\u00a0 We each have an ability to do that, and we each have a responsibility as well.\u00a0 God can work through each of us, despite our sins and despite our limitations (be they intellect, skill, etc.) to bring His message forward to the nations.\u00a0 Thus, we are supposed to accept God\u2019s grace and let us work through us, to give glory to Him through our own lives and to bring others to Him as well, through our efforts and example.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>When You had physically tasted death, O Lord, You curtailed its bitterness by Your resurrection, and You strengthened humanity against it, by reversing the failure related to the primal curse, O Defender of our life. Glory to You, O Lord. <\/em><em>(Second Resurrectional Kathisma of the first set, Third Tone, Trans. by Fr. Seraphim Dedes)<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let God work through you today!<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast\u2014unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7043624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110490],"tags":[10275,206060,1232],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7043623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-prayer-team","tag-god","tag-ocn","tag-works"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>God Works THROUGH Us | OCN - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7043623\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God Works THROUGH Us | OCN - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast\u2014unless you believed in vain. 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