Lec
# 65- 2nd Sun of OT- Jan 18, 2015- Fr. Bresowar
My
brothers and sisters in Christ,
I’m
sure this has been said, many times throughout history, as it generally is the
case, but boy, we sure do seem to be living in turbulent times. The world is a
scary place.
With
the threat of terrorism very alive and real in many parts of the world, and
with economic uncertainties present, with global, community and even personal
crisis’s rampant, one could say things look pretty bleak for the future. This
is a great cause of anxiety for many people and the secular news, for it’s
part, does it’s best to contribute to this anxiety with it’s constant message
of despair and hopelessness.
If
all we did was pay attention to the news or simply observe the plight that so
many face, ourselves included, we might forget rather quickly that there is a
savior who has already defeated evil and that all of what we observe or
experience is only temporary.
Without
this keen insight, and absent of faith, it could be easy to convince an
individual, or a society, or humanity, that we are already living in Hell and
that God is indifferent or non-existent.
But
less we be hugely mistaken, and we are if we think this way, we are not in
Hell. In fact, the sufferings that we experience here fail in comparison to the
sufferings of Hell. Satan, our adversary, who our Lord speaks of, is vastly
superior to us intellectually, and is constantly on the prowl trying to destroy
hope, and convince us that the world is going to Hell and there is nothing that
we can do about it.
Because
we are human and are endowed with a desire to Hope of better realities, Satan
temps us to take control of this plight by reminding us frequently of the lie
that God is indifferent, and that we must solve this problem by ourselves. Hope
is something we cling to, but if Satan can convince us to cling to it by making
ourselves Idols, or by making Idols out of anything which is not God, then he
knows very well, that it will perpetuate our despair.
People
need to be convinced that Jesus is necessary, as well as they need to be
convinced that things can become a lot worse than they are now. Heaven and Hell
are not good ideas, they are reality, and they must be, less we slip into moral
indifference.
For
the Christian who has faith, Heaven becomes the end and purpose of each moral
choice, and Hell is the ultimate reason to avoid evil. For Hell, as it truly
is, is not some manifestation of evil as Hollywood might depict, but rather is
a lack of anything which is good or true, an eternal separation from God. We
have no concept of this, because even in our darkest moments, even when things
look completely hopeless, God is there, but not in Hell.
Creation
tells us something about God, it’s beauty and its goodness point to Him, and
when we reflect on this, we hope for what creation points to, which is eternal
Life. A reality we really can only contemplate now but not experience, as St.
Paul states, “At present we see indistinctly, as
in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall
know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of
these is love.” And also, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it even
dawned in the thoughts of men, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Idolatry
and sin, on the contrary, leave us feeling empty, and hopeless, and point
towards eternal separation. But even what we experience in our darkest moments,
does not reflect the reality of Hell. Hell is far worse. That is to say, there
is always hope until Hell, and then there is none. Satan tempts us to choose
Hell, by trying to convince us that things will never be better.
For
the Christian, both of these realities which we can not fully conceive of
should motivate us to act in such a way that we never choose anything but
Heaven and do whatever is necessary to avoid Hell.
Some
might object to this by stating that God would never send anyone to Hell who
desires Heaven, but that is simply not the message the Gospel teaches us. We
all desire Heaven, rather we know it or not, rather we aim for it or not. God
says to us in scripture to work out our salvation in fear and trembling,
because Hell is a reality for those who choose to live a life void of God, or
worse, make themselves God. Hell is a reality for those who despair of God’s
infinite mercy too.
It
can be difficult to avoid this temptation in a world which falls into it
regularly. It could be that this has never been more manifest then in today’s
culture, when we consider how we treat our bodies.
St.
Paul asks, “Do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit,
which are given by God, and that you do not belong to yourself?” He asks this
to wake the people up, and to remind them that contrary to what the world around
them teaches or does, we are indeed not our own. That our created bodies are
good and they point to Heaven, and that we should do our part to keep them
pointed in that direction, by living a moral life, and choosing to keep God’s
commands which are always open to life and are life giving.
Sadly,
pornography, abortion, contraception, all of these do not point to life, but
are anti-life, and when lived without an understanding of the reality they
point to, which is Hell, can be easily entered into without fear and
trepidation. Sin dulls the conscience, and if it goes un-repented, the
intellect begins to believe the lie that Satan perpetuates. A lie which if
lived, will find us separated from God, where Jesus says there is wailing and
grinding of teeth.
St. Paul reminds us, “The body is
not for immorality, but for the Lord,
and the Lord is for the body.”
There is a certain death that a faithful
Christian will undergo for the purpose of ordering his body, his vocation, his
very being, to God. It is a death which is painful, requires great sacrifice,
great self-denial and great trust, but is necessary. One which states to the
Satan and the world emphatically, “I reject your false idolatry, I will not be
my own God. Rather I will follow Christ to the very end. I will live with Him,
and I will die with Him, and then I will share in his everlasting Glory when I
rise with Him.”
To do this, we need to follow the
pattern of Christ and live his Truth revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, through
his Apostles, and passed down by those He has ordained to safeguard and protect
it against the enemies of God.
The more we do so, the more we
begin to experience not the lie that all is hopeless, but the reality, that we
are blessed beyond what we can comprehend, and this is a reason to persevere.
Sin destroys us, let us do whatever we can to cast it away and when we are weak
and fall into it, let us repent of it immediately. For as strong as sin is, and
as powerful as Satan and his demons are, and as dark as the world can seem, all
of this is nothing, and will fade away quickly for those who recognize Jesus as
the one who defeats it all, unite themselves to His very mission and life, and
like the good thief on the cross, say to Him, Lord, I’m a sinner, have mercy on
me.
May God Bless us as we continue to
persevere on this journey, and may we always order our lives to Heaven, even if
it means we have to die all the way to Calvary.
