When we think about our lives as Christians, we may also need to think about what is it that still keeps us in the faith.
With what is happening around us, the bad news in the world, the bad news in the Church, the bad news in our lives, is it still worthwhile in keeping the faith?
Well, if we give up our faith in God, if we don't want to believe in God anymore, what is there to believe in then?
Certainly our experiences of God is what keep us believing and that gives us the hope to carry on.
The 1st reading sums it up by saying that God has taken us out of the power of darkness and created a place for us in the kingdom of the Son that He loves, and in Him, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins.
It is in experiencing the forgiveness of our sins, that God's mercy has freed us from the bad news of life that we have the courage to keep believing in the Good News of salvation.
In the gospel, Peter experienced that mercy of God and he acknowledged that he was a sinful man.
But Jesus did not leave him as he was. In fact, Jesus lifted Peter up to the mission of proclaiming the Good News of salvation.
We have kept the faith because of God's mercy. May our faith grow stronger as we go forth to bear witness to God's love and forgiveness.