The readings in today’s Mass speak to us of our desperate condition, and how God’s abiding love has not only set us free, but also lifted us higher. God was not content to restore us to some earthy garden, paradise though it was. No, he has so loved the world that he sent his Son who has opened heaven itself for us and given us a new, transformed and eternal life. Lets look at these readings from three perspectives and see how God lifts us higher by his powerful love.
I. THE PASSION FOR OUR PURIFICATION – Note that many of the texts in today’s reading speak of the passion God has to set things right in our life, and in this world. Note some aspects from the readings of God’s ardent love and persistent work to lift us higher:
Problems – In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the LORD’’s temple.
And thus we see our repeated infidelity, our worldliness, and our impurity. It is not as though we have had just a few bad moments, we have been persistent and consistent in our sinfulness. The cup of human human wickedness never seems drained. This is what God is dealing with, and what we experience in the long, and often sad tale of human history.
Are there good chapters? Sure.
But any honest look at human history will also reveals to us that there is something deeply wrong and flawed with human nature. We are living in a fallen world, governed by a fallen angel and we have fallen natures. Thrice fallen! This is our condition and this is what God is dealing with.
But God does not remove his love and remains a ardent lover of us.
Prophets – Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed that there was no remedy.
God’s first recourse is to call us through the prophets and through his word. Like any loving Father, he does not seek merely to punish, but to instruct so as to avoid punishing. Perhaps we will hear and amend our ways.
Have we? Is the presence of God’s word among us a saving remedy? Again the answer is mixed, but poor.
To some extent Jesus’ call to love has led to greater healing in this world. The light of faith which once informed the Western world gave birth to hospitals, greater love for the poor, greater respect for the dignity of the human person, the University system, and the scientific method. The warlike barbarians of ancient Europe were given faith and many found unity in the bosom of the Church and in more stable governments, and respect for just law.
But it also remains true that too much of human history, even in the Christian era is marked by violence, war, unforgiveness, injustice, unchastity, and a lack of commitment to the truth of the Gospel.
Yet, God continues to send his prophets in and through the Church. Can the World really say that John Paul the Great and Benedict XVI have not been prophets? Mother Teresa, Padre Pio, Fulton Sheen, CS Lewis, and countless others.
In all our ruinous state, God does not remove his love and remains a ardent lover of us.
Punishments – Their enemies burnt the house of God, tore down the walls of Jerusalem, set all its palaces afire, and destroyed all its precious objects. Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon, where they became servants of the king of the Chaldeans and his sons until the kingdom of the Persians came to power.
Punishment is not an act of venting anger for God; he is not seeking vengeance.
The purpose of punishment is to allow us to experience in smaller ways the effects of our sin, lest something worse befall us. And thus the ancient Babylonians afflicted Israel and God punished, purified his people.
So too for us, God may well permit great suffering to come upon us, not to vent his anger, but to summon us to repentance, lest something worse befall us, namely eternal hell fire.
But, truth be told, we are a hard case. Any look at the decline of the West and you’d think we’d have come to our senses by now. Our families are ruined, our birthrates are devastated, our educational system is in steep decline, our economies are way off the hook, we have a debts we cannot pay, we seem incapable of chastity or of making commitments and keeping them. Yet still we stubbornly persist in our path away from God and the gospel of truth and freedom.
Will we recover our senses, or will we vanish like empires before us? It remains to be seen. But the Church will persist, and though punished, and pruned, she will endure.
For In all our ruinous state, God does not remove his love and remains a ardent lover of us.
Purpose – All this was to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah: “Until the land has retrieved its lost Sabbaths, during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest while seventy years are fulfilled.”
Sin causes damage and that damage must be repaired. We must come to understand that sin is not just the breaking of abstract rules, it causes real harm.
The Christian term “reparation” refers to the repair that must be made for the damage sin causes. The verse used here in today’s readings talk about healing the breach that sin has caused.
Thus, while God never withholds his love, it remains true that he must journey well out in the wayward paths we have trod and lead us back. This a work of God’s, not just a wave of the hand, not just a legal declaration.
We have done more than disobey a legal precept, we have strayed far off and a repairing journey must be made. The Lord himself will shepherd us back!
For In all our ruinous state, God does not remove his love and remains a ardent lover of us.
Persevering – 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.
And thus is fulfilled the great and passionate love God has for us. For In all our ruinous state, God does not remove his love and remains a ardent lover of us.
His own Son comes to find us in our wayward places and leads us back.
For In all our ruinous state, God does not remove his love and remains a ardent lover of us.
Promotion – God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ – for by grace you have been saved – raised us up with him.
And thus is our redeemed state even greater than our original justice. We have been raised up with Christ. Grace has brought us higher than we ever were before.
Now, no mere earthly garden is granted, but heaven itself.
For In all our ruinous state, God does not remove his love and remains a ardent lover of us.
II. THE PART WE PLAY – This great act of God is offered to us. But God does not force it upon us, he invites, he offers. The part we play is to accept what God offers. And we do this by faith. And while there is a mysterious interplay between our freedom and God’s grace, it remains true that faith is our part. The door to our heart is opened from the inside, from within our heart. Faith, while a grace, also engages our freedom.
And thus we hear the Lord say today: Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
Here too the stakes are high. Belief leads to salvation, refusal to believe to condemnation, a condemnation by one’s own choice.
Why is this?
Because again, faith is more than a juridical act, or a theoretical adherence to intellectual constructs. Belief is also more than lip service. To have faith is to come to a trusting surrender to the work of God. It is a transformative relationship with the Lord that effects real and saving changes in us. Without these changes and surrender to the power of God’s love to transform us we simply cannot endure the presence of a holy God. But the relationship that saves and transforms, must be freely accepted by us.
The Lord soberly assess that those who refuse his gift do so because they prefer darkness to light, the world and its values to the Kingdom of Heaven and its values. In this way they condemn themselves, it is not God who condemns, it is they themselves who have chosen something or someone other than God.
The part we play is critical. Choose the Lord!
III. THE PATH TO THE PLACE – Note that this new life, this higher place to which we are raised with Christ is described as a walk in new works:
[God] brought us to life with Christ…raised us up with him, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should walk in them.
Thus note that the Love of God lifts us higher, higher than we’ve ever been lifted before. The text say that we have been raised up with Christ and that we walk in a whole new way. Here “walk” refers to the whole direction and destination of our life. Our whole manner of navigating this world changes. Our decisions, and how we regard the “signals” of this world, are wholly different. Now that we are no longer heading “southward in sin,” we ignore southbound routes, and all the signs pointing to them. Now we set our sights on the route “northward and upward to glory.” And all the signs and routes that go there are on our itinerary.
Note too that our “works” are also changed. For now they become not our will and our works, but the works and the will of God who acts in and through us. The new life we receive is not our gift to God, it is His gift to us. Thus we see sin put to death, and a whole new behavior come alive. This is not our work, that we should boast, it is the work of God and his grace that causes it.
And thus we see that God so loved the world that he did not only forgive us our sins, he has lifted us even higher, bestowing on us a wholly new and transformed life. Now we are not summoned merely to a natural goodness, but a supernatural goodness; not merely to human perfection, but to Godly perfection; ours is not merely an earthly garden, but a heavenly kingdom.
Yes, Lord, Your love is lifting me higher, than I’ve ever been lifted before! God so loved the world that he gave us his only beloved Son. And his Son as lifted us higher, brought us not merely back to life, but to eternal life, to the fullness of life. This is the life that Jesus died to give us.
Lay hold of this love that lifts us higher that we’ve ever been lifted before.
OK, I know the song isn’t religious. But transpose it to the higher key, like the Song of Songs does the Bible. Consider these lyrics as referring to the Lord and how his love quenches all our desires and lifts us higher:
Your love, is liftin’ me higher
Than I’ve ever been lifted before
So keep it up, quench my desire
And I’ll be at your side forevermore.
Now once I was downhearted
Disappointment was my closest friend
But then you came and he soon departed
And you know he never showed his face again
That’s why your love…is liftin’ me, higher, and higher….
I’m so glad I finally found you
Yes, that one in a million
And with your loving arms around me
I can stand up and face the world
In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the LORD’s temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.
Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets
Infidelities and abominations persist. And the response is to mock and scoff at those good people who, in all good faith, seek to do the right thing.
It is rather difficult when those who do seek to do what is right, including when a situation is thrust upon them at the last moment, and after they have exercised their best judgment, seeking to do what is good and in accordance with the Church, they are then undercut and publicly condemned for doing so by those who should be providing support.
And what will be the result of castigating the good while confirming those who are in error so that they might remain in the darkness?
Having now been emboldened, enemies will indeed seek to burn the house of God, they will try to tear down the walls of Jerusalem and set all its palaces afire and destroy all its precious objects. Those who escape the sword they will seek to carry captive to Babylon.
Those who do seek to do the good, as did the one above, will be similarly challenged. And, having witnessed the mocking and scoffing at one who tried to do what is right, and thus demoralized, they might dim their own light to avoid any controversies. Thus, the darkness prevails.
This is an awesome piece. It is a powerful message. Freedom is sweet. i love it. Thx for sharing.
This video is great! Christopher West teaches a course on Theology on the Body and in it he explains how secular music is an attempt for man’s search for God. Even in what we think are sensual songs they all express our longing for God’s Love. Two thumbs up Msgr Pope!!
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger [Pope Benedict XVI]
Sermons for Lent 1981
“So must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life”
«Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus: who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the death, even death on a cross! Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him a name that is above every name» (Phil 2,5-9)… This exceptionally rich text clearly alludes to the first fall… Jesus Christ goes back over Adam’s footsteps. Unlike Adam he is indeed «like God» (cf Gn 3,5). But to be like God, equal to God, is to «be Son» and thus wholly in relationship: «The Son can do nothing of himself» (Jn 5,19). That is why he who is truly equal to God does not cling to his own autonomy, to the limitless nature of what he can and will do. Because he travels the road backwards, he becomes the wholly dependant, he becomes servant. Because he does not take the way of power but the way of love he can descend down to Adam’s deceit, down to death, and there raise up the truth, give life.
Thus Christ becomes the new Adam through whom human life assumes a new start… The cross, the locus of his obedience, thus becomes the true tree of life. Christ becomes the image set against the serpent, as John says in his gospel. From this tree it is not the word of temptation but the word of saving love that emanates, the word of obedience through which God himself becomes obedient and thus offers his obedience to us as an arena of liberty. The cross is the newly accessible tree of life. Christ, in his Passion, has turned aside the flaming sword, so to speak (Gn 3,24), has passed through the fire and set up the cross as the world’s true axis on which the world is raised up. That is why the Eucharist, as the presence of the cross, is the tree of life remaining amongst us always and inviting us to receive the fruits of true life.
I agree, JJ! I often think when I’m listening to contemporary Christian stations that they are really just ‘love songs’ to God… If you took a lot of secular loves songs (the tamer, non-explicit ones), and put them on Chrisitian radio, you’d never realize they weren’t meant to be about God.
Msgr. Pope, your writing is truly inspired… I love reading this blog!!
“Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed that there was no remedy.” 2 Peter 2:1-3?
In this one you could upset people who like the old eastern philosophies that the “new age” trend made so popular. After all, there actually is a lot of stuff in there that’s inspiring toward a positive view and a decent treatment of people for each other; even if there’s not much about the consequences of unhealthy spirituality (which we mostly, or completely, call sin) among all that warm and fuzzy stuff. Imagine the fans of the purely positive; who claim that admitting to a dark side of anything is sick, evil, self destructive or whatever word game they play; being pulled out of their denial of the negative by people like yourself who tell them what they need to hear instead of what they want to hear. I wouldn’t be surprised if you went and told them about the narrow gate/door and the wide gate/door (Matthew 7:13&14 Luke 13:22-30) and other stuff that undermines the positive only stuff so many yearn for. Of course you’ll probably save a few from horrible consequences, even if it does cost the Church and yourself a lot of popularity. Quality of work or quantity of popularity – which to choose?
Maybe that’s why there seems to be such a strong movement afoot to merge all the world’s religions, beginning with legislating the morality of religions about such things as abortifacients or other medical practice about contempt for human life that’s evolving into place. Put all the warm and fluffy stuff in one sort of spiritual mulligan stew, cook all the nourishment out of it and proceed encouraging a global agenda of abortion, relationships drifting apart into one parent families, workers abused as underemployment increases, etc.
Monsignor, your popularity may be strong in quality but its quantity? Somehow I suspect you’ve already made a decision on that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe8ejYHS9pk&feature=related
“Lift Thine Eyes” and “He is Watching Over Israel” from Mendelssohn’s Elijah