Ad Jesum per Mariam

St. Paul Asks: Are You Conscious of Living in a Way that You Know You Are Moving Toward Heaven?

St. Paul Asks the Church of Corinth: Are You Conscious of Living in Such a Way that You Know You Are Moving Toward Another World . . . the Kingdom of God in Heaven? St. Paul wrote the letter to the Church in Corinth 2000 years ago. He wrote to the people, and he may have written it to us in today’s world. While Christians do not deny Jesus’ Resurrection, we often act in a way of indifference. Many Christians take the Lord’s Resurrection for granted. The point Paul makes is important to today’s Church as well. We who believe that Christ died and has risen; we need to take the back part of the statement seriously once again. Paul targets not our belief in the resurrection, but the way the Church is living! Note what Paul says! If our hope in Jesus is simply for today, then we are a pitiful people. Why? Because we will live in a way where Jesus is merely a memory. Hear more within the Homily! What Does the Other Side of Death Look Like? We must recognize that death is not the end! If we do, it begs the question: What does the other side of death look like? Whatever it looks like, if we have access to it at all, it is only by what God has done through Jesus Christ. For St. Paul, saying Jesus died for us, is the easy part! Thousands saw Jesus die on Good Friday. Death is a fact of how we all live. If that is all we have …a knowledge that Jesus died for us … we have nothing! We have a story that ends in a grave. If our hope is in a dead man … than we have no hope. It is vital to include the second half of the statement. Christ has risen! To say that He has risen … means that He has still risen and is alive! He is active! Jesus is active not simply for today. He is active to bring this world to completion that God desired for it from the beginning. This world, and therefore, our lives are going someplace. This what the people of Corinth were missing! Hear more within the Homily! Christ’s Resurrection was for each of us! God is moving life to a place that will not pass away! The people of Corinth forgot about this. They viewed death with pain and sorrow. But they did not look at the bigger picture and what God intends for all of us! St Paul asks the Church, are you conscious of living in such a way that you know you are moving toward another world . . . the Kingdom of God in Heaven? Listen to this Meditation Media. Listen to what St. Paul asks the Church! Are You Conscious of Living in Such a Way that You Know You Are Moving Toward Another World . . . the Kingdom of God in Heaven? -------------------------------- Image: Saint Paul Writing His Epistles: French Artist: Valentin de Boulogne: 1600s -------------------------------- Gospel: Luke: 8: 1-3 First Reading: 1 COR: 15: 12-20

Broadcast on:: 27 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

the Lord be with you and with your spirit a reading from the holy gospel according to Luke glory to you Lord Jesus Janet from one town and village to another preaching and programming the good news of the kingdom of God accompanying him where the 12 and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infamities Mary called Magdalene from whom seven demons had gone out Joanna the wife of Herod Stuart chooser Suzanne and many others who provided for them out of their own resources. The gospel of the Lord praise to you Lord Jesus Christ. Gathering here some 2,000 years after Saint Paul wrote that letter to the church in the city of Corinth it's important to acknowledge that while we do not tend to outright deny the reality of the resurrection of the Lord we often live and think and act in ways where that is exactly what we do precisely because we take it for granted. And the point then that Paul makes to the church in Corinth is vitally important for the church in our present day. We who profess that Christ has died and that Christ is risen need to learn to take the back part of that statement seriously once again. The issue that Saint Paul is targeting is not simply a matter of believing that something happened. He's targeting rather the way the church is living and nobody says if our hope in Jesus is merely hope for today we are the most pitiable of all people because we will live in a way where he is merely a memory. We will reduce our sense of what God does to what is merely around us on a daily basis. But this world passes this world will come to an end and if our hope is in this world and the things and relationships of this world and no more than that then we've missed the point completely. And so this idea that death is not the last word raises the question of what is on the other side of that. And whatever is on the other side of that we must recognize. If we have access to it at all it is only in and through what God has done in Jesus Christ. We pause recognizing that because for Saint Paul saying that Jesus died and even that Jesus died for us is the easy part. That's public knowledge. Thousands of people saw Jesus die on Good Friday. Death is a fact of how we live. But if that is all we have that Jesus died for us we have nothing. We have nothing. We have a story that ends in a grave and that is all we have. And if our hope is in a dead man then we have no real hope at all. Note how vital it is to include the second half of that statement Christ has risen. And to say that he has risen is to say that he is still risen. That he is alive. Not a memory. That he is active. Not simply distant and waiting. That this Lord who acted on earth physically among us is still active and engaged in this world now. But not engaged simply for today. But to bring this world to the completion that God desired for it from the beginning. In other words this world and our lives are going someplace. This is what the Corinthians were overlooking. This is what the Corinthians were missing. They were living in a way that just taking care of business today was good enough for them. And it's not. They were mourning their dead in a way that was non-Christian. Grieving and weeping which is natural but without hope, without expectation, reducing the loss of a loved one to the mere fact of loss. And as St. Paul speaks to them he reminds them Christ's death is for us and so is his resurrection. And the Lord is moving us through this passing world into that life which does not end, which does not pass away. And when we lose sight of that all we have is loss and pain and grief. Note how important this really is. So in writing to the church a Corinth he's not simply asking them do you know your catechism. He's not simply asking them can you repeat the formula that we taught you. What he's really saying is are you conscious of living in this world in such a way that you know you are moving toward another one. Are you conscious of living in this world in such a way that you use the things of this world for the purpose of gaining eternity. And note how different this world becomes when we understand it that way. Because the simple fact of the matter is our lives are brief. Our time is brief. And yet within this brief amount of time that we've been given we forge an eternal destiny if we open ourselves to the grace of Jesus Christ. Now the choices I make today, the words I say today, the things I do today have an eternal weight about them as small as they may seem right now. Because it's in this brief amount of time that I've been given and that you've been given that heaven opens up for us. Note how powerful that is. Note how wondrous that is. And note what that says because we don't simply say that Jesus rose from the dead in spirit. We say he rose from the dead in his body. Note how marvelous that is and note what that really says. Because we live in and through our bodies. None of us is a pure spirit. You can't love without your body. You can't be generous without your body. You can't think a kind thought about somebody without your body. And all of these things that happen in our bodies also have an eternal weight to them. Each and every loving touch that you've given or received has an eternal weight about it. Each and every word that you've said has an eternal weight about it. Note how marvelous that is. That in rising from the dead everything about the human life of Jesus Christ rises triumphant from the grave so that everything about our lives can be made new. That everything about us can be brought and transformed into glory. And that is also what we believe about our loved ones. Note how marvelous that is. We don't believe in a merely abstract salvation. We don't have a merely generic and abstract hope. It is very, very concrete. And note it is only when we look that way when we look beyond this world that we come to understand the value of this world. It is only when we look beyond the ordinary and the everyday that we can come to know the beauty of everyday ordinariness. But when all we see is this we don't even know what it is we see. We don't even know what it is we have. When we reduce one another to merely our earthly experience we don't even really know one another well. When we know that each of us and all of us has an eternal destiny that each of us and all of us is called to live into that glory that Jesus Christ has made accessible to all then we also know one another truly then we also know ourselves truly and fully. Otherwise the Saint Paul says what are we doing? If this isn't where our focus lies he says to the church in Corinth why do we even bother? Why do we risk ourselves? Why do we risk persecution if this is all we have? If it's just a matter of being together. If it's just a matter of thinking nice thoughts and saying pretty prayers if that's all it is what are we doing? And why are we wasting our time? And Saint Paul reminds them but we're not about wasting our time because time is what carries us toward eternity and our life may be brief but there's power in that very brevity and this is the other thing this is the other thing we only get one go around with this okay nobody here was ever an Egyptian princess in their past life nobody here is going to come back as someone or something else at some point down the road reincarnation does not happen and it never has we get one life one life and again Saint Paul wants to stress this the life that you have the life that I have is important so important that God created it so important that Jesus died to save it so important that he rises from the dead so that this exact life that you have and that I have can be redeemed and gathered into glory know how marvelous that is all of these other ways of thinking diminish that unique goodness that unique beauty of what it is to say that God has given me life that God has saved my life and that the life that I live matters and therefore the way I live it matters as he writes to the church in Corinth Saint Paul is essentially telling the believers don't live like everybody else around you don't live like the unbelieving world around you because you are not them you know something you've been given something live out of that because that's the way and the only way the world around you is going to come to recognize there is more there is more about living there is more about this world there is more about us than we often recognize how marvelous that is Saint Paul is writing to them reminding them when you gather on Sunday you don't receive a dead man from the altar but the one who is here is alive Christ is risen and because he is risen Christ is present because he is present salvation comes to us when Christ is present two things always happen on this altar in just a few minutes when Christ is there on this altar without fail two things are going to happen the first is that God is going to be perfectly worshiped not because we're doing it but because his prayer rises up toward heaven alongside ours in fact it is his prayer that lifts ours his prayer that carries it and when we gather here as Christ is on this altar praying our prayer is mighty and powerful indeed this is one of the reasons we offer holy mass for our departed loved ones this is one of the reasons we offer the sacrifice of the mass for people while they are alive because the prayer around this altar is the mightiest of all prayers Christ prays with us not just for us but with us and as we pray for our loved ones when we celebrate the mass his prayer rises up carrying ours he says the name of our loved one living or deceased his prayer is always heard his prayer is always effective his prayer is unfailingly mighty but the other thing that happens every time that Jesus is present God is worshipped and we are saved every time that's the rule there is no exception when Jesus is present God is worshiped and we are saved and so from this altar the living Lord Jesus Christ comes his presence is veiled hidden behind the appearance of bread but it's him and when we come forward we stretch out our hands and we don't stretch out our hands to bread we don't stretch out our hands to assemble we don't stretch out our hands to a nice little ritual that's a good thing to do we stretch them out to a person alive present we stretch them out to a person we stretch them out to that person who reached into the grave with his mighty hand and has brought the dead out to life that is who we receive note how marvelous that is Christ is risen that is why we do this Christ is victorious that is why we gather Christ is risen Christ is going to be right here not for somebody else but for you not some place else but here and so in this moment this little bit of the history of the world so brief over so quickly the infinite weight of eternity is going to be on that altar and it's going to come from that altar to you and note the very essence of receiving Holy Communion we have to look beyond where we sit we have to look forward and in looking forward we get up and we move we come forward do we not note the symbolism there our life has a direction to it wherever else we scatter to when Mass is over when we gather here there's a directionality about what we do and that reminds us believer or unbeliever it matters not all life eventually moves to the Lord better though to move as a believer better though to cooperate with that movement to embrace that movement to enjoy savor and understand that movement because that is the movement that makes all of the other movements in this world worth anything how marvelous it is that we get to do this Sunday after Sunday and indeed every single day he is alive he will be here and we will come forward and we will not meet a memory we'll meet a person a person who has come because your life and my life matter greatly amen [BLANK_AUDIO]