In all four Gospel accounts of the Last Supper, Jesus announces that one of the disciples will betray him.  Luke specifically says that Satan entered Judas and then conspired with the chief priests to arrange for Jesus’ arrest.

“Then Satan entered into Judas, the one surnamed Iscariot, who was counted among the twelve, and he went to the chief priests and the temple guards to discuss a plan for handing him over to them.” (Luke 22:3-4)

As one of the disciples, Judas would have traveled with Jesus, listened to his teachings, and seen him perform numerous miracles. What caused him to want to betray Jesus?  Was he a loyal disciple one moment and then suddenly a betrayer?  What caused Satan to enter him?  The Gospel of John suggests that he was a thief and, as keeper of the money, regularly helped himself to it. (John 12:6)

Both Satan and evil are real.  They are spiritual realities just like the Holy Spirit.  While we may not be able to see Satan physically, we can see the effects of his presence, just as we can with the Holy Spirit.  St. Paul describes the contrast.  With Satan and evil, he says we see “immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like.”  With the Holy Spirit we see “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:19-23)

What makes us vulnerable to Satan’s attack?  Peter says, “Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Pet. 5:8)    Like all predators, Satan attacks our weaknesses, bad habits and self-indulgences, inclining us to serve first ourselves instead of others.  We relate to St. Paul’s statement, “For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.” (Rom. 7:19)  Satan’s goal is to separate us from God.

The antidote to Satan is accepting Jesus’ offer to dwell in us through the Holy Spirit and embracing his example of death to self – the cross.  This is impossible for us without God’s presence and grace.  But as Jesus says, “With God all things are possible.” (Mt. 19:26)  Many years ago, I met Jesus one evening and asked him to take the present sin and disorder in my life, and he did!  I accepted his offer to dwell in me.  It was truly a life-changing moment.

“Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Come near to God and he will come near to you.” (James 4:7)  Sin begets more sin.  Grace begets more grace.

What are the ways Satan pulls you away from God?

Following a social engagement with friends, my wife commented that I had been a bit harsh with one person in connection with a certain political discussion.  I protested, claiming to have been quite reasonable in my comments.  It took me a while to acknowledge that what counted was not my perception, but the perception of the person with whom I was having the discussion.  

Later, I was reminded of the words of Jesus to the disciples at the Last Supper when he said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.  Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, ‘Surely it is not I, Lord?’” (Matthew 26:21-22) Each of them protested, yet all of them abandoned Jesus at the time of his arrest; and, of course, we are familiar with Peter later denying three times that he knew Jesus.

Our tendency is to resist acknowledging our sin or wrongdoing.  Even when we acknowledge it, we often make excuses or rationalize our conduct.  We resist correction and then compound our resistance by getting angry with the person who is trying to help us.

This occurs in varying ways.  It can be a job evaluation that indicates we are not doing our best.  Sometimes it shows up in an argument with a family member or friend.  We may dismiss our use of negative humor or participating in gossip.  We may go along with a business practice of questionable integrity so as not to rock the boat.

No matter how long we have been walking with the Lord, we are still capable of betraying Christ’s presence in us, along with his mercy and kindness.  We can deny our wrongdoing, or acknowledge it, seek forgiveness and pray for greater faithfulness.  Proverbs 12:1 may get it right when it says, “He who hates correction is stupid.” (NIV)   

Do I humble myself and acknowledge when I do something wrong, or do I say, “Surely, not I, Lord?”     

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” (Romans 12:15)

This verse is part of several statements the Apostle Paul makes in encouraging us how to relate to friends and other people in our lives.    

Over the past two months we have had four friends who have died. Two were neighbors, and two were longstanding personal friends of more than forty years. 

One neighbor was in the prime of her life having endured a 10-year battle with cancer.  She was a delightful person, always focusing on others rather than herself.  The other neighbor was in her nineties but suffered from extreme rheumatoid arthritis for many years.  She too was other focused always turning the conversation to how you and your family were doing. 

The other two were long-time personal friends.  One of them had a family with children similar in age to our children.  His wife was a good friend of my wife.  We supported each other in good times and tough times.  The other person I worked with in various ministries at our church over a forty-year period. 

With each death, we experienced their family’s sorrow, but we also rejoiced with them in knowing that their loved ones were with the Lord in heaven in furtherance of Jesus’s many promises.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  (John 3:16) 

We weep with our friends as they weep, we rejoice with them as they rejoice, knowing that their loved ones are with the Lord.

After creating us in his image and likeness, God gave us an assignment – to work and take care of his creation.  “The Lord God took man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work and take care of it. (Genesis 2:15)

Many people look on work as a curse resulting from the fall, but work was ordained before the fall, so work is a part of God’s divine plan for us.  Our purpose is to take care of creation until God is, as St. Paul says, “all in all.” (1 Cor. 15:28)

Lester DeKoster, in his book, Work, the Meaning of Your Life, defines work as “the form in which we make ourselves useful to others and thus to God.”  He explains, “Culture and civilization don’t just happen.  They are made to happen and keep happening by work.”  He poses the question, what would happen if everyone quit working and answers, “Civilized life quickly melts away.  Food vanishes from the store shelves, gas pumps dry up, streets are no longer patrolled, and fires burn themselves out. Communication and transportation services end and utilities go dead. Those who survive at all are soon huddled around campfires, sleeping in tents and clothed in rags.  The difference between barbarism and culture is, simply, work.  As seeds multiply themselves into harvest, so work flowers into civilization.”  

All work that contributes to the production of goods and services for others is part of God’s plan for creation.  What surprises people is that in working at providing the necessities for others they are serving God himself. 

We may be surprised that in doing our work we, too, are serving God.  In working as an attorney for most of my career, I did not consider early on that my work was serving God, but it was indeed a “thread in the larger fabric of civilization” arising out of God’s creation.  My summer jobs in high school and college of serving on a road asphalt crew and a laborer in a cement plant were also “threads” making up the larger fabric of civilization.  

God calls us to love him and one another. (Luke 10:27) He calls us to be holy as he is holy. (1Peter 1:15) He also calls us to work and take care of our thread in the fabric of civilization arising from his creation. 

Do you realize that you are serving God in your work?

Jim, a Christian friend, mentioned to me a few years ago that he was going to Cuba with a Christian group.  He said that he wasn’t sure what he would be doing but realized that over the years the most important thing he could do was just show up.  He said that he found that God’s grace was at work in any given situation or need. Since then, he and his team have gone on ten of these trips, and their efforts have led to over five thousand professions of faith by individual Cubans. More recently, they have been going to Mongolia with the same kind of results. 

His response reminds me a of the passage in the Bible where the prophet, Isaiah is in the temple and hears the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?  And who will go for us?”  Isaiah says, “Here I am. Send me!”  (Isaiah 6:8)

Several years ago, I was asked to help start a local chapter of Christians in Commerce, now called WorkLight (WorkLight | Workplace Ministry Helping Christians at Work.  Its mission is “to encourage and equip Christians to be God’s presence in the workplace by the power of the Holy Spirit, exercising faith, integrity and excellence.” I contacted a few close Christian friends, and we invited about 20 men on a weekend retreat. 

The Northern Virginia chapter was established and has been meeting every Wednesday morning since May 1985, albeit by Zoom in recent years.  Over the years, hundreds of men have been invited to experience the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit in a much fuller way, countless lives have been changed through these retreats and weekly meetings, and many workplaces impacted. 

I didn’t do anything special.  Like my friend Jim said, I just showed up.  God was already there through his Holy Spirit, touching and changing lives.

Are you showing up to be God’s presence to the people in your life?

“Shout joyfully to the Lord, all you lands; worship the Lord with cries of gladness; come before him with joyful song.” (Psalm 100:1)

Thirty-five other psalms begin with this same encouragement according to my cursory search.  St. Paul urges us to: “Rejoice in the Lord always. (Phil. 4:4)  Jesus in his Lord’s Prayer begins with “Our Father in heaven, hollowed be your name…”  

A number of years ago, our daughter Emily, who was born with Down syndrome, showed me how we should approach the Father with praise and worship.  We were at mass, and I was serving as a Eucharistic minister and just happened to be serving the isle in which she and my wife were coming down. When she realized that she was coming to me for communion, her face lit up with that big beautiful smile of hers, she held out her cupped hands to receive the body of Christ and started running toward me exclaiming loudly, “Daddy!”  It was an expression of complete and total love. 

My heart melted with her response, but then I thought, isn’t this how God would like all of us to approach him – unreservedly expressing our love and joy for him, not worrying about what others might think. 

While I often begin my prayer time each day with some praise, I am not sure I fulfill the expectation of the psalms or the level of commitment suggested by Jesus in his Greatest Commandment to “Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Mt. 22:37) How often does my praise come from duty or a routine approach, instead of a joyful heart?

As the Psalmist says, “From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.” (Psalm 8:2 NIV)

May we follow their example and sing hymns with enthusiasm, offer our prayers and responses with fervor, and seek the Lord with a pure heart.

“When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?  We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.” (Mt. 2:1-2)

As we know from listening to the story of the Magi every Christmas season, it was the star that led them to the Christ child.  Saint Leo the Great, Pope from 440 – 461, said we should imitate the star of Bethlehem in guiding and leading people to Jesus.  

Just as God took on flesh and blood through the power of the Holy Spirit with the Virgin Mary, so too, he takes on flesh and blood in us through the power of Holy Spirit.  God calls us to be his presence in the world and to bring that presence to the people in our lives – family, friends, colleagues and even strangers. 

Just before Christmas, Jerry Belt, a good friend of 40 years, died at age 94.  I first met Jerry on a Christians in Commerce retreat in 1985.  From then up to the time of his death he had a passion to introduce people to Jesus Christ.  For the past six years, he spear-headed a parish renewal effort at St. Mark in Vienna, VA, to encourage people to experience a personal encounter with Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit through the Alpha program.  Alpha is a series of videos coupled with small group discussion and prayers for people to experience a personal encounter with Jesus and the release of the power of the Holy Spirit.  More than 400 people in our parish have experienced Alpha and the deepening of their faith.

With most people as they grow older, their enthusiasm and energy begin to diminish, but not Jerry’s.  Up and until the last few months, his passion to encourage people to experience a personal relationship with Jesus continued unabated.     

Like the star of Bethlehem, Jerry led people to Jesus.  As we move into this new year, let us imitate the star and Jerry, and by our prayer, example and words, lead the people in our lives to experience Jesus more fully.   

“Lord, now let your servant depart in peace according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples…” (Luke 2:22-38)

Mary and Joseph had taken the baby Jesus to the Temple to offer sacrifice according to Jewish custom, and Simeon, a holy and righteous man, moved by the Holy Spirit, takes Jesus in his arms and offers the above prophesy.  He then goes on to say that Jesus will be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Isreal.”

Like the angel’s message to the shepherds, we hear a similar promise that Jesus came for all people, not just those of Jewish heritage, but all people including Greeks, Romans, and all the people of the earth.  This would include the barbarians to the north of Rome, the Persians to the east, people of the orient, and the indigenous people of the Americas, though it was several centuries before word may have gotten to them. 

Jesus came for our spouses, family members, friends, the obnoxious co-worker at the office or factory, the beggar in the median strip at the stop light, citizens of our international adversaries such as Russia, China, North Korea, and radicals in the Middle East. 

Tragically, as the opening of John’s Gospel recognizes, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”  But then John goes on to capture the great promise of Simeon’s prophesy, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:10-12, NIV)

We receive the same Holy Spirit in our baptism that inspired Simeon, that “overshadowed” Mary with her pregnancy with Jesus, and that came to rest on Jesus’ followers on the Feast of Pentecost.  May we reopen the door of our hearts to receive Jesus and his Holy Spirit for our sake and for the sake of the people and circumstances in our lives. 

“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.  For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.”  (Mt. 1:20)

These were the words of an angel to Joseph in a dream explaining that Mary was pregnant not by any misdeed on her part, but by the Holy Spirit.  The birth of Jesus and our spiritual birth have a common element.  The source of both is the Holy Spirit. 

As we celebrate Christmas this week, let us remember the role of the Holy Spirit – how the creator of all that exists became one of us in the person of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, and how we too can personally experience the presence God through the same Holy Spirit. 

May the Holy Spirit enable us to continue to experience the presence of Jesus Christ more fully in all the circumstances of our lives. 

Dear Christ in Life and Work Readers,

I am excited to tell you about my new book, A Friendship that Transcends, Experiencing a Personal Relationship with Jesus that is now available at https://www.billdalgetty.com. Sixty-five stories illustrate passages from scripture and various experiences encountering God’s presence in all kinds of circumstances.  Here are just a few examples:

1. Praying with an employee planning to have an abortion
2. Experiencing God’s voice after a child is born with Down syndrome
3. Declining a career advancing promotion for family considerations
4. Experiencing physical healing of a child’s heart after the prayer of friends
5. Praying with people who are dying.
6. Seeking God’s will impacting decisions of a large multi-national company 

This book has received a Nihil Obstat from Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Arlington, Virginia Diocese as well as an endorsement from Bishop Peter Smith of the Portland, Oregon Diocese, and words of encouragement from Father Raniero Cardinal Cantalamessa of the Vatican. 

Father Jack Peterson, former Director of Youth Apostles of the Arlington Diocese, said, “While this book speaks from a Catholic perspective, it will appeal to all Christians because of Bill’s passion for inviting everyone to know and love Jesus with all their hearts.”

Thank you for considering. 

God bless you,

Bill Dalgetty