7th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
OLR, NOLA
I
want you to fill in the blank: “My salvation through Christ is like
________.” Like Christ the Lifeguard saving me from drowning in
sin. Like Jesus the Physician curing me from the terminal illness
called death. Like Christ the SWAT team member rescuing me the
kidnapper, Satan. All of these images and the ones you could invent
yourselves are fine as far as they go. No image of our salvation is
ever going to be perfect. But there is one element of our salvation
that even some of our oldest images leave out. When Christ the
Lifeguard saves me from drowning, I do not become the Lifeguard. When
Jesus the Physician cures my death, I don't become the Physician.
Same goes for the Christ the SWAT team member. When he rescues me
from Satan, I do not become a SWAT team member. However, in the
Church's oldest understanding of how we are saved by Christ, we
become Christ when we are saved. Or rather, we are put on the path to
becoming Christ. Paul hints at this when he writes, “Do you not
know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God
dwells in you?” So, I'll ask you: how are you doing – out there
in the world – as the temple of the Spirit of God?
And
not only as the temple of the Spirit of God but also as a child of
God who is becoming Christ for others! How's that going for you? If
you want to object and say that we've upped the ante
on entering the spiritual game. . .well, you're right. Maybe we've
become a bit lazy about how we evaluate our growth in holiness? Maybe
your measure is something like: “Well, I didn't kill anyone today.
I'm doing great!” Or maybe your measure goes like this: “I made
it to Mass before the gospel three Sundays in a row. I'm doing
great!” Don't get me wrong here. Not killing someone and getting to
the Sunday Mass before the gospel are good things. But they do not
measure your growth in holiness. The measure we must use is a bit
more. . .complicated
than that. Jesus teaches us the proper measure by exposing the
foundation of the Law, saying, “You have heard it said. . .but I
say to you. . .” He says that the foundation of the Law is the law
of love, sacrificial love – giving what you have, giving who you
are to another in need. Holiness is not about not
sinning. Holiness is not about finding the loopholes in the rules and
playing lawyerly tricks with them. Holiness is about living in the
world as the temple of the Spirit of God, as one who is becoming
Christ for others.
Has
anyone here seen the new movie, Silence? It's about a Jesuit
missionary to Japan in the 16th
century. Long story short. . .the missionary is eventually convinced
by a gov't official to denounce his faith and become a Buddhist. How
is this accomplished? Not by torture or deprivation. Basically, the
official comforts
the Jesuit priest into apostasy; that is, the priest is given a nice
house, plenty of clean clothes, a beautiful wife, and a prestigious
position in the gov't. The official also tortures the priest's
followers in front of him, telling him that only he can stop their
pain. How? By denouncing Christ and converting to the Buddha. In
other words, the official does everything 21stc.
secular culture does to the American Christian. We have plenty of
food, clothes, shelter, gadgets, cars, medical care, heat in the
winter, A/C in the summer, near limitless entertainment choices, and
even the illusion of political freedom. We can continue having all
these. . .if we attach ourselves to them and let them tell us who we
are. If we let them attach themselves to us and tell us that they
alone can save us, they alone can make us happy.
Secular culture
doesn't need to throw us to the lions or put us in jail to convince
us to deny Christ. It's perfectly content to allow us to keep our
shallow measures of Christian holiness so long as we leave Christ in
his gilded box inside the church. But our Lord did not die on the
cross so that we might have somewhere to go at 6.00pm on a Sunday. He
did not die for us so that we might be part of a weird little
religious club that meets in secret. Christ died on the cross so that
we might be saved from sin and death. So that we might be made heirs
to his Father's kingdom. So that we might be baptized in water and
fire and rise again to take the Good News into the world and let the
world know that the Father has forgiven every sin and wants every
man, woman, and child ever born to be His adopted sons and daughters.
Christ died on the cross so that you and I might become Christ in
this age and build the kingdom for his return. The measure of our
holiness can never be how much we have or how well we are known. It
can never be how little we have or how obscure we are. We measure our
holiness by how far we are from the standards of the world in our
love for one another and for the least among us. In other words, our
measure of holiness is Christ himself, the one who loved so
perfectly, so fully that he died on a cross for the salvation of the
world, a world that hated and feared him.
So,
how are you doing – out there in the world – as the temple of the
Spirit of God, as one who is becoming Christ for others?
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