In baptism you died and, absolved from sin, you rose in Christ. Sermon of April 23rd

Easter Vigil

April 23^rd, 2011

Romans 6:3-11

Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.

For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection. We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin. For a dead person has been absolved from sin.

The early Christians would great one another with the proclamation of the Good News of the resurrection saying, “Christ is risen!” And the response, “He is truly risen!” And, for the early Christians, and indeed for all Christians of all times and places, this affirmation of the historical reality of the resurrection of our Savior was not merely the profession of faith in a past event, but rather the realization of the power of this event in the souls of all the faithful.

Certainly, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus are historical events which were accomplished 2000 years ago – but they are more than simply this. The death, burial and resurrection are not merely something which happened in the past, nor is the Paschal Mystery something which happened only to Christ. No, we are meant to live in this reality continually, and to participate in it.

There are two ways in which we might speak about redemption: There is the objective redemption which Christ accomplished once for all when he died upon the Cross and was risen for our salvation. But there is also the subjective redemption by which the merits of Christ’s death and resurrection are applied to all who believe in him in every place and time.

Objective redemption is when Christ died and rose, once for all. Subjective redemption is when Christ dies and rises in us – and when we die and rise in him. Objective redemption will not bring us salvation unless it be applied through subjective redemption.

Objective redemption was the subject of the Gospel reading from St. Matthew – Christ was truly risen from the dead, the tomb was empty, and the women rejoiced in him.

Subjective redemption was the subject of the Epistle of St. Paul. Now there are many reasons why we look forward to this reading from St. Paul each year – among these is the fact that, when he hear the reader state, “A reading from the Letter of St. Paul…” we know that the Gospel is finally approaching and the nine readings are almost over! J

However, there is much more than this – St. Paul speaks to us of the means by which the objective redemption which Christ accomplished 2000 years ago in Jerusalem is applied to each of us today. St. Paul explains to us the mysteries which we celebrate at this Easter Vigil.

We participate in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ Jesus – in his objective redemption – through baptism and the other sacraments. St. Paul tells us most clearly, You who have been baptized in Christ have been baptized into his death. Baptism is a dying and a rising in Christ. Baptism is a true death and a true resurrection in the Lord.

In the waters of baptism, we die and are buried in Christ. And then we rise up from the font with Christ who has risen from the tomb. In the sacrament of baptism the good Jesus dies and rises in us, and our souls die and rise in him.

Now do not be mistaken: This is a true and a real death. It is true and real because it is a sacramental death. Baptism is real precisely because it is a sacrament – and you know that the sacraments are the most real things on earth! Indeed, if anything at all is real and true, the sacraments are real and true. Indeed, in baptism you and I have truly and really died, and we have truly and really been raised in Christ. Now, we must live that new life in him.

As the presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a real and true presence, so too the death of baptism is a real and true death. The only difference between the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and the death we experience in baptism is that the Lord is substantially present in the Eucharist.

Through the mystery of transubstantiation, the bread and wine truly and really and substantially become the body and blood of Jesus. There is a substantial change in the Eucharist, but there is no substantial change in baptism. Baptism is a true death, and it is a real death – but it is not a substantial death. If it were a substantial death, then we priests would end the night in prison! J

No the death and resurrection of baptism is not a substantial dying and rising, but it is real and it is still true, because it is sacramental. In the sacrament of baptism we really die and rise in Christ. And this death is so real that St. Paul can say, The one who dies is absolved from sin. And, since we have died in baptism, we are now free from the debt of sin and from the yoke of the Law.

And what kind of death is this which we undergo in baptism? It is a crucifixion! The death of baptism is so real that St. Paul can say: You have been crucified with Christ!

The mysteries we celebrate in the Easter Triduum are not merely events which took place thousands of years ago to the man Jesus of Nazareth – no, they are the commemoration of events which have taken place in us. For the death and resurrection of our baptism is just as real and true as the death and resurrection which Christ experienced in his own body upon the Cross.

Once, upon Golgotha, the Lord suffered death and gained resurrection in his body according to his proper species. Now and through all time, the good Jesus suffers death and gains resurrection in his body the Church according to his sacrament of baptism – and we, his body, participate in the one death he died for all; with the firm hope that we will share also in the resurrection unto life everlasting.

How to persevere through Lent, Sermon of March 20th

2^nd Sunday of Lent, Year A

March 20^th, 2011

Matthew 17:1-9

Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them.

Perhaps we might consider why it is that here, on the second Sunday of Lent, the Church gives us the Gospel account of the Transfiguration of our Lord. It may not be immediately apparent to us, but if we consider the meaning of the historical event for the disciples, we will quickly understand how our reflection on the Transfiguration will aid us in our Lenten discipline.

First, what was the significance of the Transfiguration for the Apostles? Notice that the event happened near the end of Christ’s public ministry – it is recorded late in Matthew’s Gospel, in the 17^th chapter. Early on, the Lord’s preaching was very successful – wherever he went, many people converted and nearly all accepted him. Of course, the Apostles were very excited in those early days.

But then, there is a change. At a certain point, our Savior begins to look toward Jerusalem, to focus more and more on the suffering and death that awaited him in the Holy City. This transition – from those early, happy years to the last period of rejection – hinges upon the Transfiguration.

Our Savior had just told the disciples that he would suffer and die, that the Cross was coming. But the Apostles could scarcely bare this news. They feared the Cross, they were terrified at the thought of persecution. And so, Christ needed to give them comfort and strength.

For this reason, he took Peter, James and John apart from the others and led them up the mountain. Now, as soon as we hear it is these three, our minds ought to move forward to that other time these three were separated from the rest – on that night in Gethsemane, when our Lord suffered his great agony in the garden. The whole event of the Transfiguration is a preparation for the suffering which is soon to come – Christ seeks to strengthen at least these three, so that they might remain faithful through the Passion.

But, as our Lord is transfigured before them, St. Peter cries out, “Lord, it is good that we are here … Let’s build some tents!” You see, Peter talks too much. J

The Prince of the Apostles speaks with the comprehension of a child – he cannot even begin to comprehend the mystery he beholds, for he is distracted by the fact that it is shiny. Peter considers the Transfiguration beautiful simply because it is bright.

If Peter had been more reflective, he may have noticed that it was Moses and Elijah who appeared on either side of our Savior – the two men who perhaps bore more suffering and hardship than any others in the Old Testament. Moses, who was so often rejected by his own people and who died in the desert. Elijah, who was hated by the political and religious authorities of his day – who alone stood up against the darkness of hell which raged in the time of King Ahaz.

Christ is transfigured before Peter, James and John; he shows them the glory of the Resurrection. The Savior does this in order that they might be encouraged, that they might not lose heart. Christ knows that the Passion will be a great scandal to his disciples, he knows that it will be difficult and that they will be filled with sorrows – but he desires that they should not despair, that they should not lose hope, but instead might remain faithful to him to the end.

But, alas, we know that James fled with the others, he abandoned the Lord. Peter was even worse – the man who had said, “Let us build tents and remain here with you,” when persecutions came not only abandoned the Lord, but denied his Savior saying, “I swear to you, I do not know the man.”

Only John remained faithful. The disciple who was most reflective, and even contemplative. John is quiet, reserved, steeped in prayer. And he alone, from among the Apostles, he alone stood by our Christ at the foot of his Cross. The mystery of the Transfiguration had already penetrated the heart of the Beloved Disciple, strengthening him against all adversity, giving him hope in the midst of terrible suffering.

Christ was transfigured in order that the Apostles might persevere through suffering and so come to the glory of Easter. It is for this reason also that the Church gives us to meditate upon the Transfiguration now. For we yet have a long time till Easter – there is much of Lent through which he have yet to pass.

For some, it may come as a surprise that we are only in the second week of Lent. “The second week?” you say, “Surely, we have made it to the forth of fifth week by now!” No, indeed, we are still only in the second week, and, what is worse, this Sunday is only the first day in the second week! J 

Only through imitating the prayerful nature of John will we be able to find the strength necessary to pass through Lent. We must meet Christ, transfigured and in glory – but it is only in our life of prayer that we can find him thus transfigured. Our daily meditation is the time when Christ is leading us up the mountain, to encourage us, to give us strength, and to show us his glory.

We have quite a ways to go this Lent. But the Church, as a good and loving Mother, does not want us to be discouraged. So, today, she gives us this small foretaste in the Resurrection. She raises our hearts and minds to the contemplation of Easter glory – for the Transfiguration is a participation in the glory which awaits us all in life everlasting.

On the resurrection of the flesh, November 7th

32^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C.

November 7^th, 2010

Luke 20:27-38

Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus…

When an architect builds a house, he must consider every angle and every board in relation to the final product he is trying to accomplish. And, if even for a moment, he should lose sight of his goal (which is the finished house), the angle or wall will be out of place and, perhaps, the whole structure will collapse. Moreover, though the work is difficult at times, the architect finds great encouragement in thinking about how great the house will be when it is finally completed – thinking of the goal, he is able to persevere.

I think that there is an analogy between the work of the architect and the Christian life – we Christians must be constantly thinking about our goal, we must be constantly thinking and speaking about heaven! Perhaps one of the reasons we are sometimes not as joyful and as happy as we would like to be is this – we are not thinking often enough about life everlasting. The mere thought of heaven brings joy in the midst of difficulty and sorrow; and, as we keep our eyes on the prize that awaits us, we are able to persevere through all trials and sufferings.

It may be that we do not think of heaven as often as we should because we often have too small an image of what heaven will be like – many think of heaven as disembodied souls just floating around in the clouds, not doing much; sure, we are with God, but we are just floating there. If you tell this to a child, the boy or girl will tell you that that sounds pretty boring! And the child is right!

Heaven will not be just floating around as a separated spirit – we will not be angels. We will be human beings and, in the last day at the resurrection of the dead, we will have our bodies returned to us. We will have our bodies in heaven! These very bodies, this flesh which dies and is buried and corrupts; we will have this very flesh returned to us in the general resurrection! It is too great for us to imagine – but we must try to imagine it, we must think about it, and we must think of heaven in concrete terms; we are humans, that is how we have to think.

The brothers in 2 Maccabees give us a great witness to this hope in the resurrection. The one is so convinced that he sticks out his hands and tongue and says, “Go ahead and cut these off, destroy my body as you like; for God will one day restore these very hands and this very body to me, in the resurrection of the flesh!” The thought of the resurrection gave the brothers the strength to persevere and even to rejoice in the midst of intense suffering and persecution.

But many “learned” scholars today will come up with all sorts of objections to the resurrection of the body. 1,500 years ago, St. Augustine said , “On no other point does the Christian faith suffer more opposition, than on the resurrection of the body.” It is true today as well; many will admit that the soul lives on, but the world will yet deny that this very body will rise glorious and renewed.

The objections which some will make in the modern day to the resurrection remind me of the Sadducees’ objection in today's Gospel. These men were considered among the wisest and most learned in all of Israel, and they come to Christ with a very long and complicated objection – did you notice that it took them several verses to explain the intricate problem they had thought up? And yet, almost with a single word, with only a sentence, Christ is able to refute their objection and show them to be fools. The Sadducees were indeed fools, and so are all who doubt the resurrection of the body.

This is what we must say today to any and all objections against the truth of the resurrection – God created the whole world out of nothing, surely he can give us our bodies back at the end of time. If God has the power to create the universe, surely he can figure out whose body goes to whom and which part goes to which person. For God, all things are possible; he has promised and he will do it.

In any case, let us say this: If the dead are not raised, then neither has Christ been raised from the dead. And if Christ has not been raised, then his body is still in a tomb somewhere; and he is dead. But if Christ Jesus is dead, then our faith is in vain and hope is for nothing – if Christ is still dead, then all we do here in the church is worthless, we may as well all go home! But, alas, Christ has been raised and, by his power as God and even in a mysterious way through the power granted him as man, he will raise up even our bodies to share in the glories of his own resurrection. For those who hope in him, the Lord Jesus will indeed make us co-heirs with himself in life everlasting.