Such a Time as This

We are taught by the God who saved us, that we are to listen carefully to his word, given to us first by Moses then fulfilled in Christ and a practical application of it in the letter from St. James. That it is God asks us to observe and follow his words by our actions. His word when followed directs and corrects, heals us and shapes us, His word teaches and reaches our hearts with a tenderness and love that we are to live every day, but not just in our spirit...but in the lived reality of our everyday lives, thereby teaching and preaching and being more that hearers of his word but doers as well…But before we can go out and evangelize…before we can truly preach His Gospel by how we live our lives… Before we go out and save the world we’ve got to be saved ourselves…

In Mark’s Gospel we clearly hear Christ’s admonition to be aware of what lurks within us:

“Hear me, all of you….
“From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”

Christ’s words cannot be corrupted or denied … His word is truth. His word can free us and save us from what we are capable of… We must not believe we can live anyway we want Monday through Saturday and think God doesn’t see it just because we go to church on Sunday.. God isn’t blind…

We must understand that Christ is more powerful than that which is within us…all those bedevilments that taunt and lure us away from Him…we are called to be transformed by the renewal of our minds…. Christ has done his part to release us. Now it’s our turn to receive it… And once we have received Him and His truth…The personal change to which we are called becomes manifest…

Listen to the second reading, the letter from James speaks urgently to us: 

“if any are hearers

of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at

themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and,

on going away, immediately forget what they were like.”

Being attentive to God's word must not be resisted, unless we choose to restrict the effect of God in our lives. I mean it is easy to be Catholic Christians in here… To turn to one another with love and patience… It is easy to turn to one another in Christian friendship and offer Christ’s peace to one another…But Mass is going to end…and the question becomes is Christ present in us after Mass? What did St. James say?

they look at themselves and,

on going away, immediately forget what they were like."

Our Church experience must never be restricted to just a Sunday morning conversation…A feel good moment when we have fulfilled our Sunday Obligation. You see our obligation is to be not just hearers of his word but doers also applies to the other days of the week. What does the Psalm say? 

One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
Whoever walks blamelessly and does justice;
who thinks the truth in his heart
and slanders not with his tongue.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is to be believed and followed even on Monday. His is the wisdom of God on Tuesday; his is the acceptable sacrifice everyday…and is offered up for us every moment. His word is holy and everlasting. This is the edifying joy that he sends us, this is the redeeming salvation that seeks to correct the resistant voice that creeps up from that part of us that drives us away from Him and the life he wishes us to lead.

That voice that gets angry when we’re cut off in traffic. That voice that bellows at those who have wronged us. That insistent negative voice that Christ says is within us…and the old Comedian Flip Wilson’s character Geraldine listened to and then lamented:

“The Devil Made me Do It”

No matter what those little words that comes up within us, those mean and angry words and actions are not of God.

The lessons of God are the words that lead us through those dark valleys…the words of God, when we deeply embrace and believe every moment…every day.. .and in every person, gives us the grace we need in those times of anger and fear, dishonesty and envy.

And so we are obliged to honestly face the truth of ourselves in order to realize and embrace the change that our God wants to make in our lives.

In the Gospel of John 6vs. 60:69 we read of the two groups of disciples, those disciples who walked away from Jesus because His teachings were too difficult to understand and their faith could not overcome their doubt and fear. And so they went back to their former way of living. We used to call in Backsliding…They started backsliding…

But Peter and the other disciples remained with Jesus. But… what was the difference between the faithful disciples who remained with Jesus and those disciples that walked away? We know Peter had as much difficulty understanding what Jesus was talking about as the ones that left. Peter and the others didn't understand at all what Christ was doing…

I believe the difference lies in this one thing, Peter and those that stayed, accepted that even if they did not have the wisdom to understand all the teachings, they did understand that he was the Son of God, the Messiah, the redeemer and no one else, no other way, was the Way.

And so it is for you and I….There will come a time in our lives when the depth of our faith will be tested or the shallowness of it… There will come a time… a moment in our lives when we too will be confronted with a life altering situation, the loss of a job…a disappointment in a relationship, a painful illness, a betrayal…the death of someone whom we love deeply. We too will then have to choose… Do I continue to follow Him… when I don’t understand.

There will come a time in our lives when our faith in God comes face to face with our doubt and fear, our anger and jealousy; there will come a time when our commitment to God crashes head long into this truth…It is time…it is at this moment…it is now that my faith in God is required. Now what do I do? Will I walk away?

Will I run away from the truth or will I run to it? Too often we falter and stumble…panicked…everything we believed is in turmoil… Our world comes to an end and the rest of the world doesn’t seem to notice…we begin grasping ahold to anything that might rescue us…It is often too difficult to accept that this is the time to have absolute faith in God. Despite what is going on around us and despite what may be going on within us. Will I be hearer only of his word or doers?

 Our human nature in most of our panic-filled moments overcomes our spiritual nature and we seek to relieve our human fear, anger, envy, sorrow, loss by any means necessary. Yet God asks us to lean on him as the only means necessary.

Are we hearers of his word or doers? Our precious Lord speaks to us through the scriptures, Our Lord breathes His Spirit into our faith and has made available to us the strength the courage and the faith we need to battle those internal and external demons.

The disciples made the choice to not walk away, to not give up, To not give in to the bedevilments that were within them…they Made the choice to continue their pilgrimage, their life changing walk with Him, even when they did not always understand…Even when they had doubts. They didn’t let their unknowing take precedence over what they did know.

You see even though faith seeks understanding, there is no guarantee that faith will find the understanding it seeks. And so it is with faith, we make the choice to gather together as family, as church. We gather together to accept that what we will embrace today is God. What we embrace as we walk out of this church is the faith that he has sustained during our hard times he has done this with his church and completed in the Eucharist.

We have come to believe that our faith does not end on the altar, it begins there. So we are fortified to be doers of His word…and are called to spread the good news of Jesus Christ despite that what might sometimes be within us. We are on a pilgrimage...to bring others to Christ…you and I are called by Jesus Christ… To walk with him as he walks with us…side by side…then our personal pilgrimage with him will bear much fruit…you will travel with supreme grace…all because you believed…. And are doers of His Almighty and gracious word because you have listened. Amen!