saved? yes but not yet
When I ask people, are you saved, most, if not all, find it difficult to answer. Are you saved? If your answer is yes then why did you bother going to church today, why do you go to confession and why call for a priest when you feel you are about to die? If your answer is no, no I am not saved, then you are making a mockery of what Jesus did for you. He came that you might be saved. He died and rose from the dead so that you can be saved. So what’s the better answer to the question, are you saved? The better answer is, I am already saved but not yet. Saved, because Christ redeemed me and saved me with his own blood. Already saved because I have come to believe that Jesus is my Lord and Savior and Christ has finished the work of saving us. As our second reading attests, all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. All were justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus. So, I am saved . . . but not yet. Not yet because, as St. Augustine said, He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent. I still have to give my consent and consent is not just a yes but a yes followed by my hands and feet, a yes followed by action and work. I am saved but not yet because as St. Paul said, I work out my salvation in fear and trembling, hoping for that day when I will not be found wanting in my response to the invitations of the Lord in my life. Not yet because my response to the salvation won for me by Christ will be measured by the choices I make everyday - for God or against God, for love or against love. So I am already saved, but not yet.
Today’s readings are the endings, the conclusion of two long sermons. The first reading is an ending to the long sermon which Moses delivered to the Israelites as they were about to enter the promised land and as Moses was about to hand over the mantle of leadership to Joshua. The long sermon which is practically the whole book of Deuteronomy ends with a reminder of their power to choose - they can choose to obey God’s commands and be therefore blessed, or they can choose not to follow and therefore be cursed.
The gospel is the ending of yet another long sermon, that of Jesus - the so called sermon on the Mount which started with the beatitudes. Again it ends with the reminder of the choice - that one may choose to build one’s house on sand or one may do so on rock. It is a choice of just simply listening to the words of Jesus, or the choice of hearing and doing them.
The choices that we make is our consent, for though Jesus had already accomplished his mission of saving us by dying and rising from the dead, he could not save us without our consent. Jesus could not save us without us.
Today marks the day when we end ordinary time. Next week specifically on Wednesday we begin the long season of lent with ashes marked on our foreheads. The practices of lent is a reminder that salvation is not just a free gift from God, coming from the benevolence that God has for us. The practices of lent remind us that salvation is also our choice - we choose to be saved or not to be saved, we choose to be blessed or to remain cursed. The ashes that will mark our foreheads shall remind us that many times our choices can be overpowered by sin - by pride, by anger, by lust, by hatred, by inordinate desires and we end up choosing wrongly. Our abstinence and fasting during the season of lent will remind us that we have a will, and our will is ours, that no force on earth, nor in heaven nor in hell, neither our cravings and desires, not even our hunger, can move our will without our consent. By our fasting and abstinence we will be reminded of the need to strengthen it, of the need to strengthen our resolve, of the need to control our desires, so that we can follow the path of Jesus. The invitation of the season of lent to intensify our prayers will remind us that on our own we are weak, that our weakness can be overpowering, that we need the constant help of God and our Blessed Mother and the saints. We need to pray consistently because on our own we will fail.
Today our readings remind us of our inherent power - and what is that power? We have a choice. We can choose.
So are you saved? Yes but not yet. Not yet because it remains your choice.
Today’s readings are the endings, the conclusion of two long sermons. The first reading is an ending to the long sermon which Moses delivered to the Israelites as they were about to enter the promised land and as Moses was about to hand over the mantle of leadership to Joshua. The long sermon which is practically the whole book of Deuteronomy ends with a reminder of their power to choose - they can choose to obey God’s commands and be therefore blessed, or they can choose not to follow and therefore be cursed.
The gospel is the ending of yet another long sermon, that of Jesus - the so called sermon on the Mount which started with the beatitudes. Again it ends with the reminder of the choice - that one may choose to build one’s house on sand or one may do so on rock. It is a choice of just simply listening to the words of Jesus, or the choice of hearing and doing them.
The choices that we make is our consent, for though Jesus had already accomplished his mission of saving us by dying and rising from the dead, he could not save us without our consent. Jesus could not save us without us.
Today marks the day when we end ordinary time. Next week specifically on Wednesday we begin the long season of lent with ashes marked on our foreheads. The practices of lent is a reminder that salvation is not just a free gift from God, coming from the benevolence that God has for us. The practices of lent remind us that salvation is also our choice - we choose to be saved or not to be saved, we choose to be blessed or to remain cursed. The ashes that will mark our foreheads shall remind us that many times our choices can be overpowered by sin - by pride, by anger, by lust, by hatred, by inordinate desires and we end up choosing wrongly. Our abstinence and fasting during the season of lent will remind us that we have a will, and our will is ours, that no force on earth, nor in heaven nor in hell, neither our cravings and desires, not even our hunger, can move our will without our consent. By our fasting and abstinence we will be reminded of the need to strengthen it, of the need to strengthen our resolve, of the need to control our desires, so that we can follow the path of Jesus. The invitation of the season of lent to intensify our prayers will remind us that on our own we are weak, that our weakness can be overpowering, that we need the constant help of God and our Blessed Mother and the saints. We need to pray consistently because on our own we will fail.
Today our readings remind us of our inherent power - and what is that power? We have a choice. We can choose.
So are you saved? Yes but not yet. Not yet because it remains your choice.
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