The Apostles, writing to the faithful in the Church in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia, exhorted the faithful to follow certain guidelines on behalf of growing in charity. There are two interesting aspects to the letter. The first is that the apostles remind the faithful that these commandments are not meant to create undue burden, but to encourage the freedom gained in Christ. The second is that the precepts of the early Church are not that different from the precepts of the Church today. The Apostles asked the faithful to avoid practices associated with idolatry and to avoid marriages that are unlawful. The Church today asks that the faithful to attend mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation, to partake of Confession and the Eucharist at least once a year, to support the Church and to obey the Church’s commandments on marriage. Yet so often today, when the Church provides moral guidance, it is often seen as an impediment, an undue burden. This is unfortunate since the Church’s teachings on morals and faith are meant to provide guideposts not an increase in burden.

In the gospel reading from this past Wednesday, Christ spoke of himself as the true vine and those who bear fruit would be cared for while those who failed to yield fruit would be removed. Now all of us know that the care of plants requires obedience to certain rules. Plants have to be watered daily, there needs to be certain nutrients in the soul for the plant to flourish, the plants have to be in sunlight. If a person new to gardening were to read a book on how to be a successful gardener, he would not see these rules as an unfair burden, but rather as a relief, not having to worry about what the right course of action is. It is the same with Christ. He has provided guidance on what is necessary to bear spiritual fruits, to be the vine he needs us to be. This is a message that needs to be passed on to the world. When the world looks at the Church and its commandments of morality, it often casts judgment on us for creating rules that are restrictive. We need to be able to counter the argument, showing that it is through the obedience through these rules that we are truly free.

In the first reading today, Paul defends his faith through a astonishing display of his knowledge of scripture. In the Gospel, Jesus points back to scripture to show how his death has been foretold. What is the place of Sacred Scriptures in our life today? Does the law of Moses still guide us? Do the voices of the prophets echoing through three thousand years still reverberate through the chambers of our hearts today? Does the witness of the Apostles still guide us as disciples of the risen Lord?

“Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit” (Dei Verbum, 5) and the Church’s “Holy Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit” (Dei Verbum 9).

Sacred Scriptures must be the air we breathe. It is has the power to inspire, the power to calm, the power to lead the pilgrim ever deeper into the unfathomable heart of his creator. When we know scripture, we provide an unshakable foundation for our witnessing of our faith. Yet today, many of the faithful are ignorant of the immense stores of treasure that lay before them. This is a concern especially for the people of my generation and those younger still, who have no knowledge of the way of the Lord. The Psalmist ponders this very question: “How does the young man still blameless? By contemplating on the law of the Lord.” Let us dedicate ourselves to rediscovering the scriptures, or discovering them for the very first time. I assure the, the treasure uncovered will be well worth the effort.

II Corinthians 12.9

“There is no salvation through anyone else,

nor is there any other name under heaven

given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” (Acts 4.12)

“I am the way, the truth, and the life and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.” (John 14.6)

“There is indeed one universal church of the faithful, outside of which nobody at all is saved”[1]

Now, I know what some of you might be thinking. “Surely we don’t still believe that the only way to salvation is Christ? Isn’t it possible that there are other paths out there? What if God is so big that one religion can’t fully explain him, and that’s why there’s so many different faiths, all moving towards the same summit.”

But what do we actually mean when we say that we believe that salvation comes through Christ? Well we mean the same thing that St. Peter meant when he was addressing the Pharisees in today’s first reading. He wasn’t condemning them, he only telling them of the reality that they found themselves in. You see, for Peter, the gospel message wasn’t about gloating that he was saved and they were not. The gospel message was that the possibility of salvation existed at all. You may remember that it was Peter who, when he saw Jesus walking on the water during the storm, said to Jesus, “Lord, if it be your will, bid me to come to you on the waters”.[2] But then Peter became distracted by the violence of the storm, the force of the wind, and the strength of the waves around him, and he took his eyes off of Jesus and began to sink. Peter then realized that there was only one person that could possibly save him from drowning, and Peter cried out, “Lord, save me!” When Peter realized that the only one who could save him was Jesus, he realized that Jesus is enough. You see, salvation isn’t about judging others and sending them to hell. It’s about getting other people out of the storm. If I’m in a lifeboat, and I see another man drowning, I don’t judge him because he’s in the water, because I’ve been in the water before. I don’t condemn him for drowning because at some point, I was the one drowning. All I’m doing is telling the man, “Look, I’ve found the way to be saved.”

And this is what it really means to love your neighbor as yourself. When the Church speaks of faith in Christ being necessary, it’s talking about salvation not condemnation. It’s talking about sanctification, not damnation. Today there is the temptation to hold certain moral beliefs of how we should act as a personal belief. That what is good for me might not be what’s right for the person standing next to me. We’ve all heard the saying, “You do your thing and I’ll do mine.” But sin is bad not because we believe it’s bad but because it is bad. Sin destroys the dignity of the human person. Sin annihilates our relationships with the ones we love and care about. Sin is a weight on our legs that pulls us down into the depths of the storm. We know that the wages of sin is death[3], and that all of us have sinned and are in need of the glory of God.[4]

The greatest temptation with sin though is to believe that we can defeat it. We believe that it’s just a bad habit rather than the fatal disease that it actually is. Saint Paul speaks about this in his second letter to the Corinthians. He said that for the sake that his pride might not destroy him, a temptation was given to him. Three times Paul begged the Lord that is would be removed from him. Jesus’ response to Paul was, “My grace is sufficient for you”.[5] Let me say this again in case it was missed; “My grace is sufficient for you. For power is made perfect in weakness.” When Paul realized that the only one who could remove him from his sin was Jesus, he realized that Jesus was enough.There I stand here today and tell you that I boast of my weaknesses, for when I am weak, then am I strong. When I admit that I can’t do this on my own, it is then that Jesus can help me. When I realize that the only one I can call on is Jesus, it is then that Jesus can reach out and pull me out of the depths of the ocean.

You see, it isn’t that Christ doesn’t want us to be able to save ourselves; it’s that Christ knows it is impossible for us to save ourselves. This is because man was meant to walk with God, not to be alone. But when we try to do it by ourselves, we reject the very person that prevents us from sinning in the first place. But Christ did not abandon us. Christ shared in our humanity so that we might share in his divinity.[6] In baptism we died in Christ so that we might live with him,[7] so that it is no longer I but he who lives in me that brings me to salvation.[8] He who knew know sin was made sin for us[9] so that we who knew only death might know everlasting life.[10] “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. For anyone who believes in Christ is not condemned, but those who do not believe are already condemned, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”[11]

We as Christians believe in Christ because no one else, no other religion, no other philosophy, has accomplished what he did for us. In no other religion, in no other point in history, in no other mythology, has there been anything that comes close to what the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jakob did for us when he came down to earth as a human and died on the cross for our sins. In no other religion, has God promised to dwell within in us. In no other religion did God promise to be with us till the end of days, sustaining us body and blood, soul and divinity of the Eucharist. In no other religion, has God promised to call his people to himself, where he will give them a new spirit so that they might have life.

You see, when people try to find alternate routes to heaven, to salvation, they are really looking for a way that they can save themselves. But at some point, we reach rock bottom. When we find ourselves worried about our job security or lack thereof, when we’re worried about putting food on the table or a roof over our heads, and the only one offering to sustain us, to give us our daily bread is Jesus, we’ll realize that Jesus is enough. When our body is tormented by sickness, and the pain is so severe that we’ve lost all hope, and the only one offering to heal us is Jesus, we’ll realize that Jesus is enough. When the chains of sin have trapped us, and the addictions of our lives have destroyed our relationships, and the only one offering forgiveness is Jesus, we’ll realize that Jesus is enough. And when we walk in the valley of despair, when all of our friends and family have abandoned us, no longer willing to talk to us, and our best friends have betrayed us, and the only one still walking by our side is Jesus, we’ll realize that Jesus is enough.

Jesus is enough.

His grace is sufficient for our salvation.

He who has called us to a life of holiness will do it, for he is faithful.

Blessed be God, Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, and Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

The gospel reading today of the Road to Emmaus is well known, a story of the despair of world without Christ turned into the hope of a world where Christ is resurrected. Yet there is a subtle undercurrent that moves throughout the gospel reading that bears great fruit for us today. When one takes a closer examination of the text, one realizes that Luke is not just talking about a onetime encounter with Christ. He is presenting a picture of an early Mass. Think about it. Jesus, beginning with Moses and the prophets, spoke of how all things in scripture had come to be fulfilled in himself. What else can this be but the Liturgy of the Word when we read through the scriptures and the Priest, standing in persona Christi speaks of how all things are fulfilled in Christ? Then Jesus is invited to stay with them at their table, where he takes bread, gives blessing, and breaks the bread and gives it to his disciples. What else does this represent for us but the Liturgy of the Eucharist, where the Priest, takes bread in his hands, gives thanks to God the Father, breaks it and gives it to us, the disciples of the Lord?

This is important for us, because we hear how the disciples did not recognize who Jesus was until he broke the bread. But then Jesus disappeared, leaving only the Eucharist. The meaning of this is clear. The Eucharist is Christ. It is the Eucharist that Jesus leaves behind that fulfills his promise that he will be with us always, even until the end of time (cf. Matt. 28.20)[i]. And this point is crucial for us. Remember how the disciples were moving away from Jerusalem? Yet after receiving Christ, they turned around, and moved back to Jerusalem Now Jerusalem is our heavenly home. Remember how Christ acted as though he was continuing on and the disciples persuaded him to remain with them? Well, Christ has continued on. Christ, knowing that in his Father’s house there are many mansions, has gone on to prepare a place for us (cf. Jn 14.2-3)[ii]. Yet, because we have asked him to remain with us, he stays with us in the appearance of bread and wine transformed into his body and blood, soul and divinity. When we encounter Christ in the Eucharist, we are reminded that we are meant to head back to Jerusalem, where Christ awaits us. The Israelites exiled in Babylon, dreamt of their return to Jerusalem, remembering that the Lord has built up Jerusalem, to which he will gather all of the dispersed children of Israel (cf. Psalm 147.1-3)[iii]. We too, await Jerusalem, “for we know, if our earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, that we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal heaven” (2 Cor 5.1)[iv]. We are now responsible, as the disciples were, to go, and show people their way back to Jerusalem through Christ Jesus.[v]

Yesterday, Father Tom asked the question of whether God could be both merciful and just. Through the sacrifice of Christ, we know with certainty that God is merciful. In today’s readings though, we are given the picture of God’s justice, and for me at least, it is very troubling. In the first reading, the people of Israel complain against God and his servant Moses and God sends a plague of poisonous snakes among them. There is no discussion, no warning, only death. And in the gospel reading today, Christ says to those around him, “I have much to say about you in condemnation.” I can only imagine what it would be like to stand before the throne of God on judgment day and here those words repeated, “I have much to say about you in condemnation.” These are very difficult words. But there is hope. For the Israelites, salvation from death was gained by simply looking upon the icon of the snakes wrapped around a pole, the same icon that adorns ambulances to this day, a sign of hope and chance for new life. In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells Nicodemus, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish; but have life everlasting.”[i] “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5.9

When we see Christ upon the cross, we have been blessed to see the salvation of the Lord. For the Israelites, there was but one source of relief from the snakes. For us there is only one place we can turn for the relief of our sins, and that is the cross of Christ. In his discourse before the Sanhedrin, Peter, in order to justify the healing of a man who was crippled from birth, which was done in the name of Jesus (cf. Acts 3:1-8), proclaims: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).[ii] St. Paul adds, moreover, that Jesus Christ “is Lord of all”, “judge of the living and the dead”, and thus “whoever believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10: 36,42,43).[iii]

It is not good that we should keep this good news to ourselves. We as Christians are given the charge to go out into the world and tell others where they might come to find life. The temptation is to privatize faith, where each person seeks out their own path. But we also know that when those we love and care about are struggling with sin, depression or despair, it affects us. In this upcoming year, let it be God’s will that he will grant us the strength to invite someone back to Church. Perhaps it’s a neighbor, or a nephew, a granddaughter, or a co-worker. Whoever it might be, it is only fair that we share the blessing of salvation that we have been blessed to receive.

“…we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption of the sons of God, the redemption of our body.” (Romans 8.23)

Why do we sin? Why do Christians still sin even after baptism? Why do we still sin even after we’ve received grace of God? And why do I find myself committing the same sin over and over again, even though I know it’s wrong? These are some of the great question of our faith. Indeed it is a question asked throughout sacred scriptures. St. Paul states, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate. For I do not do the good I want, but the very evil I do not want is what I do” (Rom 8.15 & 19). And we ask God, “Why?” “Why am I made this way?”

What made the creation of humanity different from the rest of all creation is that we were formed in the image of God. In Genesis 2, God forms the dirt of the earth into a human being and then passes his very own spirit into the body so that man might live. As long as Adam and Eve walked with God, making him their only goal, they maintained the gift of life. But as soon as we turn away from God and towards the world, mistaking creation for the creator, we reject the very Spirit that gave us life. We subject ourselves to the domination of death. We gave away the gift of immortality which God had created us for so that we could have a fleeting moment of pleasure. Yet God did not give up on us. He continued to try communicate to his people the greatness that had been their inheritance from the beginning. Through the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jakob, the leaders Moses, Aaron and Joshua, the Kings David and Solomon, and the great prophets Elisha and Ezekiel, Daniel and Isaiah, God has constantly reached out to us, to try and restore the life that had been so bitterly lost. For this reason the prophet Ezekiel proclaimed God’s promise that “I will put my spirit in you so that you might live.”

But we still wondered why God didn’t make us stronger. How can we be expected to obey all these commands, since it seems that human nature is made to sin? How can we be expected to be holy as our Father in heaven is holy? (cf. Leviticus 19.2 and Matthew 5.48). Why is it that death hangs over our head as a punishment? How can God send people to hell when it seems like we can’t help but be who we are?

When I was growing up, I often wondered why I wasn’t made better. In High School I weighed over 270 pounds. I was what they call a “big boy.” So I would ask God, why didn’t you make me more athletic, or skinnier, or better looking. As we get older, we wonder about other faults that we have. “Why didn’t you make me smarter” or “why don’t I have more patience” or “why is it that this temptation always seems to defeat me?” Why doesn’t God make us better?

In today’s gospel, Christ is asked the same questions. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” “Lord, why did you not come sooner? You could have stopped this from happening!” “Why did this man who has healed the blind, not come to heal his own friend?” Again, we ask God, why do you allow bad things to happen?

God, being all that is holy and just, could have just given up on us. When we cried out demanding why he didn’t make us better, he could have just said because I said so. When we accused God of being an unfair judge for punishing us for what seems to come naturally to us, he could have ignored our charges. But he didn’t. He tried one more time. God came down to answer our charges as a human being. The divinity of Christ that multiplied the fish and loaves moved through the human hands of Christ. The divinity of Christ that rebuked the storm and leveled the mounting waves allowed the human feet of Jesus to walk on those very same waters. The divinity of Christ that raised Lazarus from the dead cried out through the human voice of Jesus that said, “Lazarus rise up!” Christ took on our human flesh, to show us that our human nature could live in peace with the divine nature of God. But we chose to put Christ on trial, this time for real. We put Christ on because he claimed to be God and we demanded that he explain himself. John Paul the Great contemplated the meaning of man putting God on trial in his meditations of Good Friday,

“This is the definitive meaning of Good Friday; Man, you who judge God, you who order Him to justify himself before your tribunal, think about yourself, if you are not responsible for the death of this condemned man, if the judgment of God is not actually a judgment upon yourself. Consider if this judgment and its result, the Cross and then the resurrection, are not your only way to Salvation.”

We look now at this broken body of Christ and think back to Jesus at the tomb of his deceased friend Lazarus. Think of the beaten and pierced flesh of our Lord as he tells Mary and Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even though he should die, yet will he live.” Christ could have rejected his humanity. But he didn’t. In Christ’s humanity we are redeemed. “The body that lay lifeless in the tomb is ours. The body that rose again on the third day is ours. The body that ascended above all the heights of heaven to the right hand of the Father is ours. If then we walk in the way of his commandments, and are not ashamed to acknowledge the price he paid for our salvation in a lowly body, we too shall share in his glory” (Sermon, Pope Leo the Great).

What more glorious sign of salvation could we ask for?

What other means of redemption could shine with such radiance?

What greater sign of love is there but that God lay down his life for us?

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, divinity, wisdom, strength honor and glory, blessing forever.” (cf. Revelation 5.12)

John Paul II. Crossing the Threshold of Hope. Knopf Press. 1995

Sermons of Pope Leo the Great

Tome of Saint Leo or The Letter of Pope Leo to Flavian, Bishop of Constaninople, about Eutyches

Today’s readings from sacred scripture speaks of hope. Hope is one of the three theological virtues, but it is perhaps the most difficult to understand. We know of the importance of faith, for it is by faith in Christ that we are brought to redemption (cf. Rom 5.1). We know of the importance of love, for indeed God is love (1 Jn 4.8). But hope is harder to pin down. In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah proclaims hope in the promise of God that there is a new creation coming, a creation in which the sufferings of man will be no more. In the gospel today, the royal official had hope that Christ would be able to heal his son. From the official’s hope, his son was saved from death. But we must understand that hope is not just a desire for something good to happen, or the promise of a sign. Ultimately, hope must rely on a desire to know and be with God.

In the Letter to the Hebrews, scripture reveals that faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen. Now what else can we ultimately desire but to live in the house of the Lord for the rest of our days (Psalm 21.6), to gaze upon the face of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose love led him to die for our sins? Pope Benedict says “To come to know God- the true God- means to receive hope” (Spes Salvi, sec. 3). But we do not await for something that is not already here. We know that Christ has already come. We know that he is present with us in the Eucharist, constantly drawing us to himself. That is why we cannot allow hope to become just a search for a sign of God in our lives. Note that the Official did not receive a sign that Christ had cured his son, but could only anticipate that his son would be healed. Indeed, his son was cured before the official knew that Christ’s promise had been fulfilled.

“Faith is not merely a personal reaching out towards things to come that are still totally absent: faith gives us something. It gives us even now something of the reality we are waiting for, and this present reality constitutes for us a “proof” of the things that are still unseen. Faith draws the future into the present, so that it is no longer simply a “not yet”. The fact that this future exists changes the present; the present is touched by the future reality, and thus the things of the future spill over into those of the present and those of the present into those of the future” (Spes Salvi, §7). That heaven is promised to us in the future changes how we live our lives today. Let us now go forth and live each moment with the joy of the glory that is to come.

16^th of March, 2009

In the first reading we have the story of the General Naaman and the curing of his illness. It is one of the passages that the early Church fathers saw as a foreshadowing of the sacrament of baptism. As Elisha used the Jordan River to cleanse Naaman from his disease, so Christ would bless the waters of the Jordan so that all might be saved through baptism. Then as now, some greet this news with skepticism. Naaman was offended that such a simple river as the Jordan could clean him. He expected some great action, some great healing power from Elisha himself. Today, many people question how baptism could save someone from sin, how baptism could allow for salvation. Others ask if there are not other paths to salvation, just as Naaman asked why he couldn’t have used the rivers of Damascus. But at the end of the day, all Naaman had left was faith in the God of Israel and his prophet Elisha. And at the end of the day, his faith made him whole.

But more important than this is how Naaman’s faith came about. He was ready to abandon the whole endeavor, the whole pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He had expected something great to be asked of him. But his servants came to him and asked him to reconsider, to swallow his pride and bathe in the Jordan. It was the personal invitation by others that allowed Naaman to be cleansed. Yesterday in the story of the Samaritan woman, it was the woman at the well’s going out to her neighbors and inviting them to come hear Jesus that led them to believe.

Lent is the season where we prepare to come into contact with the Christ who suffered, died and rose again for our redemption. We all know how blessed we’ve been in the grace given to us by Christ. And Christ depends on us to share the reason for our hope. He reaches the world through us. Are we going out into the world to invite people to come and hear the good news? Are we showing people where they can come and be forgiven at the sins that weigh them down? We have all been given enormous blessings. To whom much is given, much will be expected.