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Put to Death
The Deeds of the Body - And Live!
July
6, 2008
Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
By Philip D. Ropp |
All have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God: Familiar
words from the Apostle Paul, who
remains to this day, as from the beginning, the greatest of Christian
teachers. Sin is a hard master. This is Paul’s message to us.
Sin is the tool that the devil uses to
destroy us: To bring us to utter
destruction. To take from us the gift of
eternal life that Christ Jesus won for us at the Cross, and pull us
down
to be
with him in hell. And from that day
in
which Eve first took the forbidden fruit and then offered it to Adam,
that old
serpent who is called Satan has used the desires of our own human
bodies to
tempt us into following his way: The way
of death and hell and the grave. This
is what Paul refers to continually as “the flesh.”
And what he teaches us is that ultimately our
destruction comes from succumbing to the desires of this flesh rather
than
overcoming these desires through the one prescribed manner that God has
given
us: Jesus Christ.
Salvation is not a
difficult thing to understand. It is the
indwelling of the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead and
demonstrated to us
that the original sin of Adam and Eve had been conquered.
We know this because the evidence of this sin
that has remained from those earliest days until the present is death. We are all born imprisoned by this original
sin that has separated us from the God who created us to be immortal,
and we
are all born under a sentence of death that is unavoidable except in
one
way: Through Jesus Christ.
This is why the earliest name for the
Christian Faith was simply “The Way.” The
earliest Christians took this name from Jesus’
statement, "I am
the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through
me.” And we would be wise to note that
this expression means exactly what it says: The Way. Not one among many. Not
an option: The only way.
“No one comes to the Father except through
me,” Jesus
tells us
plainly. And Paul tells us in equally
plain terms that, “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the
dead
dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life
to your
mortal bodies also…”
Salvation, then,
is not a
difficult or complicated matter at all. However,
the obstacle that prevents us from achieving this
eternal life
that God has offered us in such simple terms is daunting.
It is our own physical nature that stands
between the Lord and us. And while the means of surmounting this
obstacle is
simple to understand, the task of actually doing so is complicated by
the very
temptations that are the nature of our fleshly existence.
And so we live in a time and place where the
slogans of evil confront us at every turn. They
blare at us from our radios and televisions and loom
at us from the
billboards along the highways and attempt in ways, both subtle and
obvious, to
entice us to indulge every wanton urge that our physical bodies can
feel. “Whatever gets you through the
night.” “If it feels good, do it.” “What happens here stays here.”
Expressions such as these are intended to
indebt us to the flesh, and this debt to the flesh carries the ultimate
price: Death. This
is why Paul tells us that, “Whoever does
not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”
The question as to whom such a one does
belong to is frighteningly obvious: Satan. Call his domain by any
of
its names; hell, Hades, Sheol, or the netherworld, and one common
description
covers them all: The Land of the
Dead. The wages of sin is death, and the
longings of our physical, animal bodies keep us applying for the job of
stooge
to the master of death and the father of lies, who tells us all that
matters is
our own selfish, physical gratification. “Sex,
drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll” to quote another slogan
that has dragged
countless souls of my own generation, and yours, down into the abyss.
But it doesn’t
have to be
this way. Jesus also tells us that our
heavenly Father’s will is gracious. God
does not wish any of us to die, but rather offers to all of us, free of
charge
and without cost, the way back to the eternal life that both the
original sin of
our human ancestors, and the personal sin of our own fleshly nature has
cost
us. All things have been handed over to
Christ Jesus by the Father for the very purpose of giving each of us
the
ability to overcome death and hell and the grave, that we might live
with God
in heaven forever. This is the gift of
the Cross, that Christ died sinless so that we might overcome the world. There is no way to earn this gift. It is the only way that we might be saved and
it is offered to us for the taking. “No
one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except
the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” Today,
the Son of God who came to us as the
Son of Man; who became one of us to show us the way to life by dying
the death
intended for us, and who then rose from the dead to demonstrate the
victory won
on our behalf, seeks to reveal his Father to us. And
all he asks is that we renounce the sins
of the flesh that have killed us and confess them to him that he might
cleanse
us of the curse of death so that we may live in the peace and love of
God for
all eternity. And so blessed is he that
cries out from the bottom of a soul destroyed in the flesh by human
iniquity,
“God be merciful to me, a sinner.”
The
message today then remains simple. At
the Cross our debt to the flesh was paid in full by the only one of us
ever
capable of paying it. In return for the
price he paid to ransom us from Satan’s realm of death and hell and the
grave,
he has offered us the gift of life eternal. A
gift beyond price: A gift
that
is so marvelous as to be beyond our mortal comprehension. Jesus
is "The Way." It is
through him and he alone that we are
able to put to death the deeds of the body that have already destroyed
us, and
regain that most precious gift of life that the devil has stolen.
Accept his invitation and find rest for
yourself. Offer up the ways of the flesh
and take on the ways of God. Feel his
spirit as it dwells within you and offer up to him the praise and glory
that is
rightfully his. Turn from the labor of
sin and throw off the burden of death. Rejoice! For his
yoke is
indeed
easy and his burden indeed light. Bondage
results from the sins of the flesh but true freedom is in Christ
Jesus:
And him alone.
|
July 6, 2008
Zec
9:9-10
Thus says the LORD:
Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion,
shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king shall come to you;
a just savior is he,
meek, and riding on an ass,
on a colt, the foal of an ass.
He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim,
and the horse from Jerusalem;
the warrior’s bow shall be banished,
and he shall proclaim peace to the nations.
His dominion shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Ps
145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14
R. (cf. 1) I will praise your name for ever, my
king and my
God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I will extol you, O my God and King,
and I will bless your name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and
my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and
my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and
my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD is faithful in all his words
and holy in all his works.
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and
my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Rom
8:9, 11-13
Brothers and sisters:
You are not in the flesh;
on the contrary, you are in the spirit,
if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Consequently, brothers and sisters,
we are not debtors to the flesh,
to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die,
but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.
Mt
11:25-30
At that time Jesus exclaimed:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to little ones.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you
rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
Lectionary for Mass for Use
in the
Dioceses of
the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998,
1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain
©
1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy,
Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be
reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium,
including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the
copyright owner. |
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