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Homily, November 20, 2022

Homily, November 20, 2022
Speaker:
November 19, 2022
in
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From The Pastor

The mystery of Divine Love and its essence is beyond our understanding. It can only be realized by faith through a maturing trust in the experience of being loved, forgiven, and fully received in Christ. As human creatures, we cannot do this on our own. We cannot reach God by ourselves. God must come to us. This means that God must first make the free choice to create, and then through love make the Divine presence known to all that is created. In our finite nature as the created we belong to and live under the infinite authority of the One who created us.

Today’s feast offers us the image of God, given to the world through the Incarnation of Jesus as the Christ who saves us as King of the Universe. The Kingship of Jesus is different than any worldly kingship. Worldly kings hold power over others; some with justice and compassion, others through power and oppression. The Kingship of Jesus is different. The Kingship of God in Christ is not an authority over us, but with us and in us as we share the Divine nature and identity of the One who created us. The Kingship of Jesus comes through humble surrender to death on a Cross to save all that is created from death caused by the lie of evil and the disorder of sin. The Kingship of Jesus is one of love revealed in self-emptying surrender that accepts human death caused by suffering and humiliation of our sin.

Why? God as the essence of love is perfect humility and self-giving. Human weakness, caused by the blindness of sin, cannot fathom this mystery of surrender for the sake of unity in love. To understand the Almighty nature of God is to realize that God is the perfect giver of unlimited, unmerited, freely given self-surrender in Jesus. Divine love surrenders all for the sake of the beloved. This is the mystery and the truth revealed in the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus. He became all that we are, without sin, that we might share through him the Divine glory. ‘He who did not know sin, became sin that we might share in the righteousness of God. I Cor. 5:21

The defeat of sin and death was not squeaked out like a last second field goal in a one-point victory. The power of Divine love consumes the lie of evil, sin, and death in the glorious Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Out of love, his dying and rising, through perfect surrender and self-giving, crushes the vanquished foe. Ours is to choose this victory as our own, allowing it to become our identity and nature in Christ here and hereafter.

God is patient. The fullness of this truth has not yet arrived. We are living in the in-between. We are already saved in the singular act of redemption accomplished on the Cross. In the world and in our human nature we are working out our salvation day by day as we seek to live and act in the love Christ modeled for us.

This tension is effectively seen in today’s gospel. The tension and the lie of sin is blind to the truth of love. “This is the judgment, the Light has come into the world, and the people loved darkness rather than the Light.” Jn. 3:19. The mystery of Divine love is too much to accept against the power gained in sin over others. The religious leaders lie and manipulate the truth about Jesus because his power of love was beyond their capacity to control. In the mind of the world, they had too much to lose to allow the truth of Jesus to prevail. They allowed themselves to be deceived in sin and cast the same deception on the crowds turning them against Jesus.

The battle between evil, sin, and death is played out on the Cross. The victory is secure, but the event nonetheless must play out. Through the action of the Cross, the truth is revealed for all who are willing to see and accept it. This is seen in the two criminals on either side of Jesus. One sees truth and light, the other sees death in fear with a rebuke against a dying Savior.

With judgment and disdain, the one criminal rebukes Jesus as a fake. “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.” Especially me. God cannot save God. God is in no need of being saved. God is not for or about the Divine self. God is totally about others, even within the Divine Trinity. The Father and the Spirit fully given through the Son.

The ‘good’ criminal sees innocence and the light of goodness in Jesus. He is drawn to Jesus, mindful of his crime and its rightful punishment. He sees peace in Jesus who freely surrenders and accepts the judgment of the Cross. In this frame, the Cross is an image of love and truth. With a humble and desperate heart for love, the man says: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Boom! Victory. “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” This is the power and the promise of our humble King. Not a squeaked out, falling forward victory, but a consuming fire of Divine love that defeats evil, sin, and death. Jesus Christ is Our Lord and King of the Universe. If you find this hard to believe, sign up for a time to adore the Holy Eucharist on Tuesday’s during Advent from 8:45am to 12:30pm. Let Jesus speak to your soul.

Father John Esper

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