5th Week of Lent 2021 - Preservative and Liberative Redemption

 In our readings who heard of two women: one who was being framed by evil men, and one who was genuinely guilty of the sin of adultery.  Both were tempted to sin, pressured; but one was resisted sin, the other gave in. And in both stories, God is shown as the great deliverer.

In the first story, God delivers the innocent, by coming to their aid. In the second, God delivers the sinner, the guilty, through mercy. The sinner is delivered through Jesus’ offer of mercy and conversion.

We are called to be innocent like Susanna. When we are being pressured to sin, coerced, threatened by the wicked, we are to turn to God to deliver us from evil. And we are called to be like the woman caught in adultery: when we’re guilty of sin, we are to turn to God to deliver us from evil, our own evil, the evil we have caused, and we have committed. Whether we are unjustly condemned or justly condemned, we are certainly called to place are trust in the Lord.

Blessed Duns Scotus, Franciscan philosopher and theologian, taught that there are two types of redemption: preservative redemption and liberative redemption. God preserves us when we turn to him in temptation, and he liberates us when we’ve fallen. We certainly see those two types of redemption on display today.

The key is that we turn to God whatever our state, whatever our trial. We certainly pray for those who neither turn to God for preservation or liberation, those without faith. And we seek for ourselves, a deeper faith this Lent, that we can come to trust less in ourselves, and more in Christ. 

For each of these women, God's action in their life meant a new beginning for them.  Susanna would no doubt spend the rest of her life as a witness to God’s intervention in her life. The woman caught in adultery, was commanded by Christ, “to go and sin no more” hopefully she persevered in that new way of living.

Similarly with us, we are called to give testimony to others of the great things God has done for us by living righteously and faithfully to Jesus.

As we celebrate in just two weeks the ultimate source of our deliverance and redemption, the Cross and Resurrection, may the Lord deliver us from all sin, all temptation, all evil and all fear of witnessing to his love for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

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For an increase in faith for the catechumens and candidates who approach the sacraments of initiation in the coming Paschal Solemnity. And That the Church might be delivered and protected from all spirits of error, heresy, schism, and unbelief. Let us pray to the Lord.

That during this Year of St. Joseph, the Church may discover a deeper devotion to our Universal Patron. That through St. Joseph’s intercession families may be strengthened, priestly and religious vocations may increase, demons may be scattered, and the sick and dying may know the peace of Jesus. Let us pray to the Lord.

For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation, addiction, or illness: may they experience the healing graces of Christ. Let us pray to the Lord.

For all those who have died, for all the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our country’s freedom, and for [intention below], for whom this Mass is offered.  Let us pray to the Lord. Let us pray to the Lord.

Mercifully hear, O Lord, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in your divine mystery may always benefit from your assistance.

Homily: 5th Sunday in OT 2017 - Salt of the Earth

I remember as a kid, my dad telling stories about working in the salt mines under Lake Erie when he was a younger man.  Morton Salt has about 3 miles of salt mines 2000 feet underneath our great lake.  This salt is an important source of revenue for the State of Ohio, and the salt is utilized in a number of ways: particularly as a seasoning for our food, and on our roads during the winter.

Jesus uses the metaphor of salt to teach his followers the Gospel. He says to his followers, you are salt of the earth. Salt, for Jesus’ listeners, must have evoked a number of images, just like it does for us.
Of course, salt is a seasoning. It adds flavor to an otherwise bland dish.  It’s not an entrée in itself; you aren’t going to sit down to a nice bowl full of delicious salt for breakfast.  Christians are to be a sort of seasoning to an otherwise bland world.

Christians, fully alive with the life of Christ, are anything but bland. This week we celebrated Catholic Schools week, and daily over in the school, the students learned about some of the patron saints of Christian Education, saints like Thomas Aquinas, John Neuman, Angela Merici, Elizabeth Ann Seton, holy men and women who bristled with energy and joy and charity. Their saltiness has changed human history, has changed the way the faith is passed on to the young generations.
Not only do we look to them in great gratitude, but for inspiration for developing our own brand of Christian saltiness on our own lives. For each of us are called to be saints, to heroic virtue and selfless service.

How else is salt used? Salt is necessary for life. Even the most stringent nutritionists have to admit that salt is a necessary component of the human diet. The ancients, too, understood, salt was necessary for good health.  Similarly, Christians need to be salt in this way. The health of the church in a particular area can be measured by whether or not its Christians are living according to the precepts of our faith.

Salt is also a Preservative: In the days before refrigeration, salt made preserving food possible for times of famine. Christians need to be a preservative in our culture, to preserve what is good and holy in creation against the spiritual corruption of worldly vices. Seeing many of the strong Christian values in our country begin to fade, Christians need to take up again this call to preserve. Christians must preserve the nation, marriage, family, the young from spiritual rot.

Salt is also a Purifier: The salt in the oceans of the world act as a natural cleaning agent, and most water purification systems use salt as a "purifier." Christians are to be the world’s purifiers: opposing the corrupting powers of malice and perversion and greed. Each of us too need to seek the constant purifying of our minds from the world’s corrupting influence. We purify our minds through study of God’s word, interiorizing the doctrines of our faith, the example of the saints.

Salt also has a destructive power.  As a kid, I’d run to the kitchen to get a salt shaker when I found a slug in the garden…a little morbid, yes.  In the ancient world, when an army would conquer their enemy, they’d knock down the walls, raise the city to the ground, then really to rub it in sometimes they would cast salt upon the earth so that nothing would ever grow there again. Are Christians to be a destructive power in society? In a sense we are! We are to be a force against all manifestations of sin, all the ways in which human life is violated and discounted, all forms of hatred and violence, we are meant to interrupt them and get in their way.

Finally, as we know all too well, living here in Cleveland, Salt is used for the melting of ice. Salt makes things flow that are frozen.   The Church’s task is to loosen up a world frozen in its own self-regard, frozen in violent and perverted ways.  We have this melting influence, when we are faithful to Christ.  Think of the power of one saint, how he can melt hearts that have been frozen against Christ. Many souls have been converted to Christ because they saw holy people selflessly engaged in the acts of charity. Just like it’s used on our roads, in ancient times salt was also used to prevent people from slipping on slippery paths.  Christians are called to help souls from slipping into damnation—promoting the teachings of Jesus on marriage, family, and morality, which give stability to civilization.

We look to our culture and see a lot of problems.  But when the Church is faithful, we can have that melting influence in a neighborhood or state or country to get things flowing in the right direction again.

You and I are called to be salt. But the Lord warns that salt can lose its flavor. Perhaps maybe you have lost a bit of enthusiasm for the Christian life, or your marriage has gone a little bland. Maybe you don’t feel like you are having a positive influence on your neighbors, or the fallen away members of your family.

The solution: Pray, pray, pray.  Only when we are united to Christ in a vibrant prayer life can we hope to bring his light and goodness and beauty into the world.  You cannot be salt without constant prayer.  A priest who does not pray is worthless, a bishop who does not pray is worthless, husbands and wives who do not pray will not have the strength and power to faithfully live out the Christian responsibilities of the marriage sacrament.  Young people who do not pray will not have the strength to withstand the nearly unending torrent of evil from our culture.

Salt: an ordinary substance with tremendous potential, many uses, vital to life and civilization. We must become salt by bringing Christ into our workplaces, into our conversations, into our civic life, in our family life. Be salt, my friends, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.