visible rhetoric

Our belief in the grace of God in our life is central to our faith as Christians.  Salvation after all is a grace.  We are sustained by grace.  We will attain eternal life through grace.  Grace is a benefit freely granted by God to his creatures.  The important words in the definition of grace are “freely” and “gratuitously”.  These words are opposed to what is due or to anything I can rightfully claim.  It is something we cannot rightfully claim as our own, and it is something that is not due.  In other words it is given to us by God even if it is unmerited or undeserved.  This is an important outlook which we need to recover otherwise we cannot understand the Christian attitude.  Why is this? Some look at God as a good businessman, and like a good businessman, God never gives anything for nothing.  And so I have to pay for God’s goodness.  This kind of relationship with God destroys the very concept of grace as so...

Tonight we have welcomed our new brothers from the grade VII, from the pre-college and from the special Philosophy.  We have also welcomed Fr. Maynard who will join us in the formation team starting this year.  We have also welcomed our new teacher Sir Bernie and also our new auxiliary personnel, Hubert.  Tonight this is the beginning of our getting to know each other.  Now it is just faces and names and addresses.  When the grade seven had their retreat they were made to go around and had all of us including priests and personnel sign up in their notebooks with our names and work. In the weeks and months to come we will come to know stories behind those faces and names.  This acquaintance is simply to acquaint us with one another, initially, but this will not make us community yet.   It will take some time for that to happen.  It is my hope then that we go beyond fun, that we go beyond faces so that we can become a real community....

Our reading tonight is about David picked five smooth stones from the brook before fighting Goliath.  Whatever giants we are facing, like David, picking up and arming ourselves with these five stones will help us overcome them.  What are these five stones of which we should arm ourselves with?

GK Chesterton, that famous catholic author once said that he became a Christian because of its belief in the Trinity.   So what, you may ask?  If Christianity, he said, was only made up of human beings with a human intellect and a human understanding, then he could not have thought of a concept that is not only difficult but even impossible to grasp or explain: the idea that God exists as one but in three persons. This is one of the things the Trinity reminds us about ourselves today.  Our belief in the Trinity reminds us that there is truth in the world that we do not and cannot fully understand.  Our belief in the Trinity reminds us that our understanding is limited, that there are things in this world that will always remain hidden and mysterious, truths beyond our conceptualization, truths beyond our imagination even, and truths beyond what our language can capture and describe.  Many times if you notice our experiences of God are far richer t...

Salt is not useful to itself and so it is never valued for its own sake.  Rather salt is valued because of its application on other things.  It puts flavor on food, it acts as a preservative and it is a good conductor of heat.  Light is not useful to itself that is why you do not light a lamp and put it under a basket.  Like salt it is not valued for its own sake.  Rather light is valued because it can light the darkness – we can see and we can be seen when we have light.  Again light is useful because of its application and function. 

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come.   Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you.”  What is glory?  What is the glory of the Son?  What is the glory which the Son renders to the Father?  When we read the gospel of John, glory and glorification refer to the cross for it is in the cross where Christ reveals the depth of his love for the Father and for us.  In times of great crisis those who receive and give the greatest honor are not those who survive but those who give the supreme sacrifice of their own lives for  others .  Love is always proven by how much you are willing to sacrifice for others.

What is this peace which Christ is leaving his disciples?  What is the peace of Christ? Peace is a biblical word.  In the original Hebrew the word for peace is shalom .  Shalom means to be whole, to be complete.  That is why the greeting shalom can mean a lot – it can mean prosperity and well-being, it can mean harmony and concord, it can mean success, it can mean tranquility.  It is a state when the person becomes whole, when a person becomes what God intended him to become. When shalom was translated into Greek they used the Greek word eirene.  Eirene means inner peace wherein the person has no conflicts within, when a person does not have hostile feelings.   Later still the word evolved so that eirene or peace means the good that comes from God. 

Before we go into our reflection this morning it might be helpful to look into the context of our gospel today.   The gospel of John says that Jesus was walking about in the temple on the feast of the dedication.   The feast of the dedication is held in December which explains why John says that it was winter.   The feast of the dedication commemorates the re-dedication of the temple after the Jews fought and won their independence from the Greeks.   The temple had to be rededicated because the Greeks turned the Jewish temple into a pagan temple erecting even the statue of Zeus and sacrificing pigs in the temple, so despicable to the Jews.   So the temple has to be cleansed, it has to be offered back to God, it has to be dedicated again.  

Jesus said, I am the gate for the sheep.  And a second time he said, I am the gate, whoever enters through me will be saved. When Jesus said “whoever enters through me will be saved” what did he mean “will be saved”? What does it mean to be saved?  Some of you might have been approached by some people who might have asked you, are you saved?  What did you say?  How did you answer?  Did you ask them, what do they mean saved? How does it feel to be saved?  Does being saved mean my sins have been erased, I am forgiven?  Did Christ come to die for my sins so that I can be forgiven and therefore saved?  Of course this is what Jesus came for – to forgive our sins, to wash away our sins.  But what does it mean, what does it feel like, what does it do, what does salvation bring you?

We have already reflected on two cardinal virtues namely prudence and fortitude.  Now we reflect on the third cardinal virtue which is justice.  Justice is the virtue that guides us to give what is due to God and to others.  Giving what is due to God and to the others is not charity.  It is a strict obligation.  As employers, as people who employ other people, giving the correct salary and benefits to which our employees are entitled, is a demand of justice and not of charity.  As employees paid for our work, by justice we are also obligated to render the service that is required of us.