We have a very beautiful Gospel today, from John. We also have a very interesting reading about
how God has dealt in history with His chosen people in our first reading. Either
would provide good material for a homily. But I am fond of St Paul’s letter to the
Ephesians, so I am going to focus on our second reading today.
Unfortunately,
Paul’s complex thought processes, and our insipid translation, makes it
difficult to understand Paul, buried under mounds of dependant clauses. So I have taken a red pencil to today’s
second reading, parsed it down to the essential structure, and this is what I
came up with for the first half:
“Brothers and sisters; (all of us), God
.. brought us to life with Christ ...., raised us up with him, and seated us
with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus.”
That is the
core of St. Paul’s message: God brought
us to life, raised us with Christ, seated us with Christ in the heavens, so
that God might show his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. WOW!
Now does
anything strike you as a little ‘odd’ about that statement? // It
is in the past tense. St. Paul is
talking about something that has already happened. Not something in the future that we await,
but rather a done deal.
So, ¿Have you noticed that you have been
brought to life, raised up and seated in the heavens?
I
haven’t! And yet Paul speaks of this as
an already accomplished fact. He states:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith.....” He does not say, “At the last Judgement, or
sometime in the future, you will be
saved,” but rather he insists,
“you have been saved.” Because God has already made it
happen. Once God decrees it, it is as
good as done.
“And
this is not from you;”
St. Paul continues. Not our doing. “It is
the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.”
We can never –
by our own efforts - achieve our own salvation.
No matter how good and holy we try to be, no matter how much we fast and
pray and go to church, we can never achieve our own salvation. But that doesn’t matter. It has already been given to us as a gift! No strings attached!
The one thing
we most desperately want, the fullness of life, everlasting life, or in
shorthand “salvation,” which we can never accomplish on our own, has already
been given to us. It is already
accomplished!
And what do we
have to do? We just have to accept
it. As we heard in today’s Gospel: “For
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes
in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.”
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.”
All we have to
do is accept the salvation God offers, believe in Jesus as the Son of God, and
give thanks. That is what we are
gathered here to do. We celebrate
Eucharist, which means thanksgiving. We
profess our faith in Jesus as our Savior, and we give thanks. Because the heavy lifting and the hard work of
securing salvation has already been done.
And it is all gift.
It is like a
song by the Damiens that I heard many years ago when I was a new priest in
Alaska: (sing) “Love that’s freely given wants
to freely be received. All the love
you’ve poured on us can hardly be believed.
And all that we can offer you is thanks.
All that we can offer you is thanks.”
God has already
accomplished our salvation in Jesus Christ.
It is a done deal. And it is pure
gift, not our doing but God’s. For, as
St. Paul instructs us, “we are God’s
handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in
advance, that we should live in them.”
And all that
we can offer back is thanks, is Eucharist.
Thanks be to God!
No comments:
Post a Comment