Corpus Christi Blog

To give what we have received is to be counter-cultural

02-24-2019HomiliesFr. Chad King

Our Gospel today continues the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes in which Jesus is teaching his disciples how they are to live as set apart from the world, which as we just heard is a very high expectation. Jesus calls us to ‘love our enemies’. Yes, Jesus means those people we so often try to avoid because they annoy and frustrate us, we are called to love and do good to them. And if that isn’t hard enough, Jesus seemingly commands his disciples to do the impossible: be merciful as our Father is merciful. So often, we can hear Jesus’ teaching and perhaps feel a little, OK, better said, A LOT overwhelmed and unqualified, just like the first disciples must have felt. However, in this homily instead of trying to stir us on to do that which is so difficult, let me reflect on our 2nd readings from this week and last week to help shed light on one very critical aspect which makes our difficult task possible, and not so unbelievable as the first disciples must have thought. Indeed, this critical point makes it possible for us, but it also heightens the urgency and severity to Jesus’ words, and should make it more convicting for us. To do this, I am going to need your participation. Throughout this homily, I want you to be thinking about one very important question. That very important question is: Why are there so many atheists and agnostics in the world today?

Our 2nd reading today from 1st Corinthians 15, tells us that Jesus Christ is the new Adam, that just as Adam and Eve’s disobedience and sin brought death into the world, so Jesus Christ, with Mary, as the new Adam and new Eve, overcomes the sin and death and brings a new life into the world. Jesus is the new Adam, and Mary is the new Eve. Of course, Jesus accomplishes this through His death and resurrection which takes away the sins of the world. The fact that Jesus has risen from the dead, for us, compared to the original disciples, makes all the difference in the world, or at least it should. Listen again to St. Paul from our 2nd reading last week, a little bit earlier in the same chapter- 1 Cor 15, in which Paul is objecting to the claim there is no resurrection from the dead. “If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been risen, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain; you are still in your sin”. Why are there so many atheists and agnostics in the world today? I submit to you that one reason is because too many Catholics, too many Christians, are still stuck in their sin and are not living the new life that Jesus gives. Either that or too few are willing to evangelize and share about the new life they’ve been given.

For us who know Jesus Christ, for us who whole-heartedly believe He was crucified and raised from the dead for the forgiveness of sins, that truth should make all the difference in the world. Our lives should look different. Does your life now look and feel different than if you did not believe in Christ? It should if you have had and are being converted. It should look radically different. Of course, the death and resurrection of Jesus is not magic, we have to continually surrender our sinfulness and weaknesses to Him. We cannot just go through the motions in our faith, including our sacramental lives, but we must have a deeper desire, a longing, for Him. God is calling each of us to a deeper conversion this upcoming Lenten season. We need to respond. And respond in a way that is giving of our full heart to the Lord. Chances are there are some people in this Church today that has not been to the Sacrament of Confession for many years- indeed, when that happens, we too become stuck in our sins. All the Sacraments draw their power from the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ. And so, every Sacrament, beginning with our baptism, including every Confession and Reception of Holy Communion helps to instill the new life God offers through the Paschal Mystery of Christ. Listen to a quote from Vatican II’s document on the Sacred Liturgy: “The faithful should listen to the word of God and take part in the Eucharist, thus calling to mind the passion, resurrection, and glory of the Lord Jesus and giving thanks to God who has ‘begotten them again through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, unto a living hope’”(106). So, I ask you, when you come to Mass, do you call to mind the passion, resurrection, and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ? If not, listen more closely and take to heart the words of the Eucharistic prayer, or during consecration envision Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, for that is what is happening! But, let’s go even deeper. Listen to the same document’s urge for you during the Eucharist upon this Altar: “The faithful should give thanks to God. Offering the immaculate victim, not only through the hands of the priest but also together with him, they should learn to offer themselves”. Pause here for a second- Have you learned to offer yourself in each and every Eucharist? You can do this by praying and offering your suffering, your sinfulness, or offering that which is most weighing on your heart at the time. A perfect time to do that is at the Presentation of the Gifts and the priest says “Pray, brothers and sisters, that my sacrifice, and yours, may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father”. But also, you can offer yourselves by saying in your heart ‘Thank you, Jesus, I love you’ or ‘My Lord and My God’ when the priest holds up the Body and Blood of Christ, for example. Or simply reverently surrendering- saying ‘I am yours, Lord’ as you prepare to and after you receive Holy Communion. All of those are powerful ways to let what is happening upon this altar become more real and effective in your heart and life. After the document says that the faithful should learn to offer themselves, it continues, “Through Christ, they should be drawn day by day into ever more perfect union with God and each other, so that finally God may be all in all” (48). Indeed, we are called to be drawn day by day into ever more perfect union with God. And so, as we become more and more like God, and God’s divine nature is more prominent in revealing itself than our human nature, then can say with St. Paul “I myself no longer live but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Therefore, to paraphrase a line from the end of our 2nd reading today- Just as we have borne the image of the earthly Adam, so we are to bear the image of the Heavenly Adam, who is Jesus Christ. If we Christians were to bear the image of God and experience and live this new life more and more day by day, indeed, there would not be so many atheists and agnostics in the world today.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, although it is so difficult for us to love as God loves and to be forgiving as God is to us, Jesus makes it possible. It is only when we have truly received the generous outpouring of God’s love and forgiveness, which is given anew through each and every Sacrament, that we are able to give to others what is humanly impossible. In fact, as we draw closer and closer to our Lord, and become more and more like Him, it becomes easier and easier to live the high expectation as Jesus’ disciple, because Jesus’ disciples simply reflect that what they are receiving. So, Lord, as we enter into this Eucharist, make your love and new life more real and present in our lives so that we can reflect it to others.

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