Tag: <span>Salvation</span>

July 27, 2021July 26, 2021

Weeds and Wheat

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

We may unconsciously categorize the depiction of the Lord in the first reading as imperfect, proper to an Old Testament view of God:

“The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God,
slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity,
continuing his kindness for a thousand generations,
and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin;
yet not declaring the guilty guiltless,
but punishing children and grandchildren
to the third and fourth generation for their fathers’ wickedness!”

But in reality, this depiction perfectly describes the reality we live in as Christians, a reality brought to fulfillment with the coming of Jesus.

Jesus does not declare the guilty guiltless, and He has not chosen to remove the devastating effects of original sin from humanity with His coming–punishing effects that continue to pass from generation to generation.

But He is, above all, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, generation after generation; He forgives everyone who comes to Him.

And today’s gospel bears all this out. At the end of time, God does not declare the guilty guiltless; rather, evildoers are gathered like weeds and thrown into the fiery furnace.

Here we see the chasm that exists for eternity between those who have been weak and sinful, but have returned often to the well of God’s mercy, and those who choose willfully to persist in their sin, resisting all God’s invitations to conversion. The first may be confident, full of hope; the second are heading for a terrible destiny. It is confusing these two groups that often leads to a false depiction of mercy in our times. Our job as Christians, through our prayer, sacrifice, and counsel, is to help move others from the second group to the first.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to incorporate you, according to His own plan, into His beautiful drama of salvation, and offer Him your life for the salvation and sanctification of others.

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June 26, 2021June 25, 2021

Letting God

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Why is it so hard simply to believe that God will keep his word?

Today’s readings are all about faith. We see some examples of people who are slow to believe. In the first reading, Sarah chuckles in disbelief as the messengers of God predict her childbirth. In the gospel, Jesus refers to those of the house of Israel who lack faith.

But we also see examples of great faith and trust. Abraham’s faith wins him great blessings from God, and the centurion in the gospel–notably not one of God’s people, not an Israelite–demonstrates not only great humility before Christ in declaring his unworthiness to receive Him, but also great faith and trust that Jesus can cure his servant without even being physically present.

And in both of these readings, the strong faith of one benefits others. Abraham’s faith wins for him the blessing of a son–and the same blessing even for his disbelieving wife Sarah. In the gospel, the centurion’s faith wins the salvation of his servant from paralysis.

Heroic faith casts a broad glow; it illuminates and benefits the lives of others, who may not possess such faith.

But again, why is it so hard simply to believe that God will keep his word? Why do we so often fail to demonstrate the faith of Abraham, and fail to bring God’s blessings upon us, like the centurion?

It runs fully against our nature to place our understanding of the protagonist role in our lives in God, rather than ourselves. We so dearly want to achieve accomplishments that we can be proud of, and conversely, how ashamed we are of our shortcomings and failures. Also, we are embittered by other humans’ lack of love, to the point that the bitterness blurs our view of God’s infinite love

Faith requires a radical shift of mentality. It is not about our accomplishments; it is about what God can do and wants to do, and indeed has already done in us. It is not about our failures; it is about our lives offered to Him daily as a gift, with all their foibles and warts. It is not about others’ mistreatment of us; it is about God’s tender care for us.

Those who realize this mentality shift in their lives attain limitless blessings from God, in this life and eternity.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus for the only thing He asks of you: Trust. Ask Him to fill your life with the certainty expressed in Mary’s Magnificat, which becomes the psalm response for today: The Lord has remembered his mercy.

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June 25, 2021June 24, 2021

Light in Darkness

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

The entire history of salvation consists in God’s action to undo, with the most delicate respect for man’s freedom, the damage that man has done to himself through sin.

In today’s readings, we see God reversing physical maladies introduced into the world with original sin: infertility in the case of Sarah in the first reading, and leprosy in the gospel.

And the joy this brings is represented in the psalm: “See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.”

But in the end, all of this presages and culminates in Jesus’ act to reverse the greatest damage of all done by sin: the inability of the human being to enter into a relationship of loving intimacy with God the Father.

It may frustrate us sometimes that so many maladies still exist in the world; that with His coming, Jesus did not reverse them all at once. But the fact that He did not perform a complete overhaul of this sort with His coming reflects His respect for our original, fundamental choice.

He did, however, completely overturn the limitation of our freedom to choose good, in particular the ultimate good of a relationship with God, that we had imposed upon ourselves with original sin. He threw the door to God back open for us. And while we cannot avoid every suffering that comes to us from this broken world, with His help we can thoroughly and completely choose to enter into that relationship, with all the interior light and joy that this brings–to the point that our sufferings begin to take on a very relative importance.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus that you trust in God’s providential plan for the world and for you, and that you trust the approach to salvation that He has chosen. Ask Him to fill you to bursting with all the fruits of His redemption.

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June 22, 2021June 21, 2021

The Narrow Path

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

“How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.” With this chilling line today’s scriptures end.

In the first reading, Abram, who has chosen the narrow road by seeking to be faithful to God in all things, is given a breathtaking promise:

“Look about you, and from where you are,
gaze to the north and south, east and west;
all the land that you see I will give to you
and your descendants forever.
I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth;
if anyone could count the dust of the earth,
your descendants too might be counted.”

Throughout Scripture, we find that the outcome of choices in life are uncomfortably binary. Either we choose the difficult path of God’s will in all things, and reap amazing happiness like that promised to Abram, or we choose the broad path that leads to perdition, and lose all happiness forever.

Why is the path of God’s will difficult? We also read in today’s gospel:

“Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.
This is the Law and the Prophets.”

Sounds sweet and pleasant. The Golden Rule. But living it is very hard. Abram provides us an ideal example in the first reading. Instead of picking the best parcel of land for himself, he gave Lot the first choice–and Lot chose the more fertile parcel. God’s promise to Abram above follows directly upon this choice. Doing God’s will is so simple. And so hard. And, the consequences could not be more definitive and extreme.

We’d like it to be otherwise. Countless very learned theologians have taken great pains to explain away Jesus’ words, effectively stating that He was predicting not outcomes that would happen, but outcomes that could happen. Sure, Jesus says that few find the path to salvation. But that’s just what could happen, if people are really really evil. In reality, just about everyone gets to Heaven.

What does Jesus really say, though? He says that few find the path to salvation–present tense, indicative mood. He is stating what actually does happen. And we do well to take His words at face value, and to strive with all our might to make choices, all day, every day, like those of Abram.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to give you a heart like His, always ready to give others the best and take the inferior for ourselves–which is what it means to do to others what we would have them do to us.

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May 21, 2021May 10, 2021

Reasonable Chaps

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

In the first reading, we see an interesting depiction of something we in the western world rarely encounter today: A person who has never heard of Jesus Christ, or of Christianity, with its key tenets of sacrificial redemption and selfless love.

The key figure in the reading, the Roman procurator Porcius Festus, though He had never been introduced to the grace of the one true God, seems to have been a reasonable enough chap. He thinks through St. Paul’s case logically, and even with a certain appropriate respect. He is not a demon drooling blood or spitting fire. He’s an ordinary guy in a position of government.

This brings to mind a quote from St. Thomas Aquinas that bears repeating in its entirety:

“The good that is proportionate to the common state of nature is to be found in the majority; and is wanting in the minority. The good that exceeds the common state of nature is to be found in the minority, and is wanting in the majority. Thus it is clear that the majority of men have a sufficient knowledge for the guidance of life; and those who have not this knowledge are said to be half-witted or foolish; but they who attain to a profound knowledge of things intelligible are a very small minority in respect to the rest. Since their eternal happiness, consisting in the vision of God, exceeds the common state of nature, and especially in so far as this is deprived of grace through the corruption of original sin, those who are saved are in the minority. In this especially, however, appears the mercy of God, that He has chosen some for that salvation, from which very many in accordance with the common course and tendency of nature fall short.” (Summa Theologia, I. 23. Art 7. Ad 3)

As Thomas effectively states, being a reasonable chap–enough to get along with others and make one’s way through life–is the normal state of affairs. That said, he articulates something that we may often forget: That eternal salvation is a miracle that lies high above the capacity of human nature, and despite Jesus’ infinite merits and readiness to give it, it is difficult to attain.

It is well to remember then, by an inevitable conclusion of this passage from St. Thomas (as well as numerous passages of the Gospel, e.g. Mt. 7:13-14), not all “reasonable chaps” attain salvation. It is a central part of our Christian duty to pray, sacrifice, and work that more come to know and embrace Jesus Christ.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: It is our principle task as Christians in this life to introduce others to Christ through our words, our prayers, and our sacrifices offered for them. Ask Jesus to give you a Heart like His, which yearns for the eternal welfare of each person. Ask Him to give you and show you the effective means by which you are called to aid Him in the work of salvation.

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April 30, 2021April 16, 2021

The Path

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Jesus pronounces consoling words in today’s gospel.

He is preparing a place for us; there are many mansions in His Father’s house. There is no shortage, whereby we need to compete for a place.

Those of us who are realistic about the path of salvation know that it is a narrow one, and difficult to follow, per Jesus’ own words (cf. Mt. 7:14). Many, perhaps per Jesus’ words the majority, do not find it. Thomas seems a little anxious about this today in the gospel: “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”

But then Jesus gives us one of His most consoling utterances in the whole Gospel, because it is made in the context of a discussion of the path of salvation: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

We all know that we can gravely sin and thereby choose eternal condemnation and suffering. This can seem terrifyingly possible at times. But is immensely consoling to know too that as long as we cling actively to Jesus, who is the Way, He will not allow us to go astray or make choices for our own condemnation.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus about your greatest fears regarding eternal life, both for you and for your loved ones. Then, give these fears completely to Jesus, and tell Him you trust Him to keep you on the path that you want to be on.

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April 26, 2021April 8, 2021

Meat Plate

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

St. John Paul II taught us that the original Covenant between God and the Jewish people has never been revoked. In spite of their on-and-off infidelity in the Old Testament, and the fact that their leaders crucified the Son of God, the original Covenant still stands. He is still their God, and they His people.

Much as we in the Church have a history of on-and-off infidelity, and we with our sins have crucified the Son of God, and yet the New Covenant likewise has never been revoked. God’s fidelity and mercy are endless.

Still, we see God’s Covenant with man broadening before our very eyes in the first reading, as Peter is led by the Spirit to consume unpurified meat with the uncircumcised. St. Peter, the first Vicar of Christ on earth, is led by the Spirit to open God’s Covenant to these uncircumcised. It is the moment when all of us who are not of Jewish ancestry have the door to Christianity and salvation opened to us.

Now, as today’s gospel tells us, we can all enter through the sheep gate that is Jesus, into eternal life. He is the gate. For all of us.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to lead you through the gate that is Himself. Tell Him that you trust Him, even though you are an “unwashed” sinner, to wash you in the blood of the Lamb and make the garment of your soul as white as snow.

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April 2, 2021April 2, 2021

True Strength

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Throughout today’s Scriptures we find a paradox: Our Messiah is laid low, is weak and subjugated, and yet He consistently stands out as by far the strongest man in the scene, next to whom His adversaries appear weak.

When the soldiers come to arrest Him and He responds to their inquiry “I AM,” they spin away from Him and fall to the ground.

Pilate asks Him what truth is, and momentarily becomes His advocate upon hearing His merciful words about having committed the lesser sin.

Pilate recognizes His greatness: “Behold the Man!”, he proclaims about a stricken Jesus who is nonetheless still standing on His own two feet. And when challenged about writing “The King of the Jews,” Pilate stands by the inscription.

Jesus speaks of drinking His cup Himself, and it is He who carries His own cross out to Golgotha.

Jesus is not grandstanding to make some tragic but glorious point. He is simply, firmly, fulfilling His Father’s will. He is doing what He has done throughout His earthly life; indeed, even before that, in eternity.

It is this obedience that saved us.

If we give ourselves wholly to God, the cross will come. Jesus has promised it. But so will the strength to endure it, to be like Jesus even with the cross on our shoulders.

Ultimately, this is the goal of our daily contemplative prayer, where we seek union with God and His will: Obedience. Obedience to God, in good times, and in bad. Saving obedience, in union with the obedience of Jesus.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Thank Jesus for His obedience up to death. Ask Him for the gift of this virtue, whereby your life becomes complete surrender to God’s will, for the salvation of many, by the infinite power of Christ’s cross.

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April 1, 2021March 15, 2021

The Cup of Salvation

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

In addition to the extreme drama of this evening’s readings, there is an element of them that is absolutely startling.

This is the climax of Jesus’ life, and the institution of the Eucharist is the climactic moment of His gift of self for us and to us down through the generations. This is HIS moment.

And yet, in line after line of each of today’s readings, Jesus–and God, in His message to Moses and Aaron in the first reading–He makes it all about us. About OUR participation in His saving mystery. As if we had the central role in the salvation of humankind, and not He Himself!

Examples from the readings that center attention on us: “Do this in remembrance of me.” (second reading) “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” (gospel) “How shall I make a return to the LORD for all the good he has done for me? The cup of salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the LORD.” (psalm)

A startling message leaps from the pages of Scripture today: While of course, Jesus’ act and none other is the all-powerful wellspring of salvation, He is relying on us to take up the cup of salvation, to follow the model He has left for us, to do this in remembrance of Him. Even as He is all-powerful, yet we are co-protagonists with Him in the act of salvation.

Central to this, of course, is the repetition of the Mass throughout the ages. But we must remember: Every time we offer Him our lives freely as that bread, that cup, is elevated, we augment the reach and application of the all-powerful salvation won in Christ. He chose to need us; and to fulfill that need, our role is marvelously simple: We must simply give Him our lives, with all their sufferings and joys, and strive to fulfill His will, as He fulfilled His Father’s.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Adore Jesus silently at the very moment of His “yes” to the Father in Gethsemane–His “yes” for us. Adore Him; thank Him; and offer Him your life in imitation.

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March 28, 2021March 9, 2021

The Contrast

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

We may wonder why the events of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem and His Passion and death are rolled into one liturgy on this Palm Sunday.

Good Friday services carry no obligation; the Church assumes that many Christians will not manage to participate in them. So, to make sure that all have the opportunity to participate in a liturgy whose readings are focused on Jesus’ Passion and death, she designates Palm Sunday also as Passion Sunday.

Of course, there were days between the historical events of Jesus’ triumphant arrival and His Passion. But the coincidence of both liturgies of the word on this day exerts a striking effect. At one moment, Jesus is acclaimed as a royal and named “He who comes in the name of the Lord”; at the next, He is hanging bloody on the Cross.

While the contrast between the two may seem striking, there is an evil underlying continuum. In a sense, Good Friday happened because of Palm Sunday. The acclaim for Jesus as He entered Jerusalem incensed the Pharisees and their cronies to the breaking point. This man had to go; He had to die. It was He or they, as Caiaphas said in today’s gospel in so many words; better for one man to die, than for their whole structure of existence to be destroyed through the popularity of His liberating message.

But then there’s that curious explanation of Caiaphas’ words: He said this not of his own accord, but as high priest for that year. There was a deeper reality to his words, a divine reality: Jesus would die for us all, that we all might not be destroyed by our own sin.

And so it was, in fact, that a completely different, good, loving divine drama was playing out under the same contrasting events of Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Palm Sunday wasn’t a fake exuberance, leading up to a real rejection on Good Friday. The acclaim for Jesus upon His entry was real and was desired by God. Just as Caiaphas would proclaim something deeper than he knew as high priest, so the people acclaiming Jesus on the road into Jerusalem played out a divine plan much deeper than they knew, whereby the Father had decreed the glorification of His Savior Son.

It is so easy for us, at a distance of 2000 years, to abstract these deeper meanings clearly from the pages of the Gospel. Then, why is it so challenging for us to see the same profound and loving subtext in our own lives, with their triumphs and their crosses?

Why? Because we do not believe that the Father loves us as He loved His Son. We are miserable sinners, we subconsciously reason, so we are condemned to a life of unloved and unplanned randomness, befitting traitors of the Creator.

We could not be further from the truth. Even in our sinful imperfection, the Father loves us just like His Son. In fact, in a sense, it could almost be said that by sending Jesus, God the Father loved us more than His Son. Of course, this is impossible. But think about it: God sent His own Son to be crucified for us; such was His love. Why would we ever doubt that He will order our lives with the same depth of meaning and beauty that He did His Son’s earthly life, folding effortlessly even our weaknesses and sins into the story arc of saving efficacy?

And there is just one ingredient from us necessary to unlock and bring to bear this deeper reality: Our trust in God’s love for us, and the power of that love.

The dichotomy of Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday betrays a depth of meaning in the occurrences of Jesus’s life that inspires awe and is worthy of meditation. The same depth of meaning lies latent in God’s plan for each day of our lives, and we have access to see it and marvel at it, if we look with the eyes of trust.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Adore Jesus. Tell Him how thankful you are for the saving mysteries He lived for you. Contemplate those mysteries, go over them again and again in a spirit of awe and love. Then, ask Him to help you see the same providential footprint in your own life that you see in His. Ask Him to bring profound meaning from your life for the salvation and sanctification of the souls whom you love, and beyond.

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