There are two things that must be clearly understood and believed in order for what I am going to say today to make any sense. First, God – the cause of all things who is without beginning or end – created mankind in His own image. Mankind, being made in God’s image, has a rational soul and free will. Also, God created mankind perfect and without any fault whatsoever. At the beginning mankind had only to follow God’s command and he would have lived in peace with one another and with all of creation. And following God’s command would have been very easy to do because in the beginning the will of mankind was perfectly attuned to God’s own will.
The second thing that must be clearly understood is that mankind chose, in defiance of God’s command, to follow his own path. As a result, all of creation, which was created to serve man’s needs, has been cursed and is destined for destruction. Also, mankind’s intimate union that he shared with God in the beginning has been destroyed. Because of this all of mankind is born into Original Sin. This was never God’s plan for mankind. But even though it was man that broke with God, because He loved us and because of His original plan for us He vowed to save us from eternal separation from Himself. Without that promise from God and the fulfillment of it, mankind would have lost all hope and it is very important that we remember that fact.
Now you may wonder why I have taken the time to explain what you already know. I have done so because in the Pope’s recent letter Porta Fidei he explains that we can no longer assume that anyone knows anything whatsoever about the Faith. This is evident by the fact that many so-called Catholic politicians, at least the ones we are familiar with here in this country, continually say foolish things like, “I’m a faithful Catholic but I think abortion is ok.” And of course the problem isn’t just with those in the national spotlight. On a regular basis, while I am visiting the hospital, I encounter people that don’t know their Faith. And I am sure that many of you have a family member or someone you know that thinks some very strange things about the Faith. Knowing this I think we can all see the Pope’s wisdom in what he has said. We can no longer take for granted that the people we encounter know anything about the Faith. Because of this I have started today by explaining the predicament that mankind finds itself in: God created us perfect but we sinned and are therefore separated from Him.
But, as I have already said, God promised to save mankind from his sinfulness and with that promise mankind has hope. This process started with the Old Covenant between God and His chosen people which had a system of continual animal sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. But, as it is written in the letter to the Hebrews, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.”1 Therefore, as we just heard in our reading today from Hebrews, Christ “has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”2 In this one sentence is summed up for us the reason that God became man. Mankind could not save itself and therefore God intervened so that we would not be eternally separated from Him.
But, with our redemption having been won for us almost 2,000 years ago, the belief in the salvation of mankind by God has become for many something equivalent to a fairy tale or a myth: no more than a made up story to help people cope with the senselessness of the universe. As a result of this type of thinking Western society is becoming more and more secular and it is apparent that many of those who claim to be Christian are giving less and less thought to the redemption won for us by our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, entire countries that once proudly called themselves Christian, our own included, have now entered an era of darkness. Proof of this is seen when looking at the results of the recent elections: we can see that people are now completely willing to put their hope in a mere man who four years ago proclaimed hope for everyone if only they would vote for him. He did nothing remarkable, performed no miracles, and died for no one’s sins, in fact it is quite the opposite because just like King Herod who tried to kill the infant Jesus by slaughtering the innocent in Bethlehem, this man has shown that he is completely willing to sacrifice the lives of the unborn for his own political gain and now he is even trying to take away our freedom of religion. And even though this is the case the people of this nation have once again chosen to hope in him to solve all their problems. But, in a similar manner to what St. Paul said, if it is only in this life that we have hoped then we are most of all to be pitied.3
Therefore, we would do well to remember what we are told today in the letter to the Hebrews, “Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”4 In this is our true hope. It is in fact the definition of hope. Christ has died for us and He will return to take us to be with Him forever. But notice that it says He will come “to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” If we only care about the things of this world what will become of us when Christ returns? If we show no concern for Christ in this life and instead look to the rulers of the world to solve our problems what will Jesus say to us when He comes again? If we ignore Christ in this world would we honestly expect Him to say to us in the next “Welcome into my Kingdom”? Would we not expect Him to say instead, “Depart from me for I never knew you”? For this reason we must treat as very serious our Faith in Jesus Christ.
But we can’t stop there. Because of the state of the world in which we live and because Jesus has commanded us to do so, we must take the true hope that we have in Jesus Christ out to the rest of the world. Just as the Church did 2,000 years ago she must do once again. We must re-evangelize the peoples of this world. We must convince the world of death, judgment, heaven and hell. If we don’t then this world will become even more depraved and more immoral because it will continue to lose sight of the true hope that is found only in God. Yes, we will suffer for witnessing to the Truth of Jesus Christ, perhaps to the point of giving our own lives. But we, as followers of Christ, must follow His lead. He gave us the example of carrying the Cross and said that His true followers would do the same. Therefore, let us and all those who call themselves Christian, be the ones to bring true hope back to the world.
1Hebrews 10:4, RSV-CE
2Hebrews 9:26b, RSV-CE
3See I Cor. 15:19
4Hebrews 9:28, RSV-CE
The second thing that must be clearly understood is that mankind chose, in defiance of God’s command, to follow his own path. As a result, all of creation, which was created to serve man’s needs, has been cursed and is destined for destruction. Also, mankind’s intimate union that he shared with God in the beginning has been destroyed. Because of this all of mankind is born into Original Sin. This was never God’s plan for mankind. But even though it was man that broke with God, because He loved us and because of His original plan for us He vowed to save us from eternal separation from Himself. Without that promise from God and the fulfillment of it, mankind would have lost all hope and it is very important that we remember that fact.
Now you may wonder why I have taken the time to explain what you already know. I have done so because in the Pope’s recent letter Porta Fidei he explains that we can no longer assume that anyone knows anything whatsoever about the Faith. This is evident by the fact that many so-called Catholic politicians, at least the ones we are familiar with here in this country, continually say foolish things like, “I’m a faithful Catholic but I think abortion is ok.” And of course the problem isn’t just with those in the national spotlight. On a regular basis, while I am visiting the hospital, I encounter people that don’t know their Faith. And I am sure that many of you have a family member or someone you know that thinks some very strange things about the Faith. Knowing this I think we can all see the Pope’s wisdom in what he has said. We can no longer take for granted that the people we encounter know anything about the Faith. Because of this I have started today by explaining the predicament that mankind finds itself in: God created us perfect but we sinned and are therefore separated from Him.
But, as I have already said, God promised to save mankind from his sinfulness and with that promise mankind has hope. This process started with the Old Covenant between God and His chosen people which had a system of continual animal sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. But, as it is written in the letter to the Hebrews, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.”1 Therefore, as we just heard in our reading today from Hebrews, Christ “has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”2 In this one sentence is summed up for us the reason that God became man. Mankind could not save itself and therefore God intervened so that we would not be eternally separated from Him.
But, with our redemption having been won for us almost 2,000 years ago, the belief in the salvation of mankind by God has become for many something equivalent to a fairy tale or a myth: no more than a made up story to help people cope with the senselessness of the universe. As a result of this type of thinking Western society is becoming more and more secular and it is apparent that many of those who claim to be Christian are giving less and less thought to the redemption won for us by our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, entire countries that once proudly called themselves Christian, our own included, have now entered an era of darkness. Proof of this is seen when looking at the results of the recent elections: we can see that people are now completely willing to put their hope in a mere man who four years ago proclaimed hope for everyone if only they would vote for him. He did nothing remarkable, performed no miracles, and died for no one’s sins, in fact it is quite the opposite because just like King Herod who tried to kill the infant Jesus by slaughtering the innocent in Bethlehem, this man has shown that he is completely willing to sacrifice the lives of the unborn for his own political gain and now he is even trying to take away our freedom of religion. And even though this is the case the people of this nation have once again chosen to hope in him to solve all their problems. But, in a similar manner to what St. Paul said, if it is only in this life that we have hoped then we are most of all to be pitied.3
Therefore, we would do well to remember what we are told today in the letter to the Hebrews, “Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”4 In this is our true hope. It is in fact the definition of hope. Christ has died for us and He will return to take us to be with Him forever. But notice that it says He will come “to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” If we only care about the things of this world what will become of us when Christ returns? If we show no concern for Christ in this life and instead look to the rulers of the world to solve our problems what will Jesus say to us when He comes again? If we ignore Christ in this world would we honestly expect Him to say to us in the next “Welcome into my Kingdom”? Would we not expect Him to say instead, “Depart from me for I never knew you”? For this reason we must treat as very serious our Faith in Jesus Christ.
But we can’t stop there. Because of the state of the world in which we live and because Jesus has commanded us to do so, we must take the true hope that we have in Jesus Christ out to the rest of the world. Just as the Church did 2,000 years ago she must do once again. We must re-evangelize the peoples of this world. We must convince the world of death, judgment, heaven and hell. If we don’t then this world will become even more depraved and more immoral because it will continue to lose sight of the true hope that is found only in God. Yes, we will suffer for witnessing to the Truth of Jesus Christ, perhaps to the point of giving our own lives. But we, as followers of Christ, must follow His lead. He gave us the example of carrying the Cross and said that His true followers would do the same. Therefore, let us and all those who call themselves Christian, be the ones to bring true hope back to the world.
1Hebrews 10:4, RSV-CE
2Hebrews 9:26b, RSV-CE
3See I Cor. 15:19
4Hebrews 9:28, RSV-CE
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