24th Sunday - Jesus, our reality check!
A great philosopher once said, “Reality, what a concept!”
A true experience of Christ and Christ’s salvation will change our reality.
To experience Jesus’ Salvation and to be free, it is necessary to have our reality changed.
The human person, in attempt to make sense of his or her’s world, to feel a degree of safety, creates their own reality. This is normal.
What can happen though, is we forget this or we do not know that this reality is subjective; it is in a sense made up, and it can keep us limited as persons.
We think that that because “I believe this” It must be true for all.
And it isn’t. Which then sets up all kinds of conflicts.
The event of the Son of God becoming human; the event of his life, teachings, healings; the event especially of his arrest, crucifixion, death and resurrection, I hope, shakes us up.
God’s gift of salvation to us is meant to to wake us up from our slumber, shocks us to think differently, to change our reality.
Then we can truly be free. Free to see the good in others, free to see the good within ourselves.
Think about the man in the parable.
What was his reality?
Clearly he had money issues, but I think there were deeper issues at play, and it isn't until we move through the parable we begin to see.
A great event of liberation happens to him. He is treated with such compassion, with such mercy...and his reaction?
Vengeance, anger, cruelty towards another person.
The arrogance of this man.
It’s all about him. This wonderful thing that happened is about him. I bet he think he deserves this great act.
And he sees this other man and his only thought is that this man still owes him, he does not have what he “deserves.”
Clearly there was no change in him. He remained the same.
Humanity killed the Son of God.
The Father’s response to this horrible crime--the Resurrection.
The Cross and Resurrection become the Living Sign of the Father’s love, the Father’s capacity to forgive, the living sign of the Father’s desire that we be one.
I was talking with this one person, and this person mentioned about a time of really poor judgement which caused pain to a person who was loved very much. They realized the mistake, asked for forgiveness, received it.
It changed that person’s life. It softened the heart, opened up the person’s ability to see other people differently, meaning their compassion and empathy.
This event of Jesus has changed many-- and sadly many of us are still unchanged.
Our reality still remains caught up in our own anger, in our own egos.
We refuse to forgive. We refuse to see others as equals, as human persons.
And because of that we remain small little men and women. Caught up in the narrowness of our own petty little lives.
Look at those Christians who still advocate racism and prejudice!
Look those Christians so willing to let people suffer because to do anything else is inconvenient to their own way of living.
Look at Catholics in our own diocese who don’t give a care to anyone else, but only the people in their own parish.
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit desire us to grow.
As St. Athanasius said, God became human, so that we humans can become as God.
Jesus comes so that we can transcend the human condition,
transcend the reality of hate and anger, fear and sadness,
transcend the smallness of our egos,
so that we can grow to be as God so that we can be one with God.
There can be no peace in our lives and in this world, unless we are willing to let ourselves be changed by Jesus Christ, and the reality of God that he brings.
We can pray for peace and forgiveness for as much as we want, but unless we allow God’s grace to change the way we think, the way we act, we will be stuck in our cycle of violence.
God does not punish us. God does not inflict suffering of war, sickness, storms and hurricanes, and other violence on us;
we inflict it upon ourselves.
We think that the best way to deal with someone who has hurt us is to punish them.
We think “i” can do whatever I want, and we ignore the consequences.
We think that “my” life is special, and other’s are not.
It is easy to kill someone, mistreat someone, when they are less than human;
the infant in the womb, a man on death row, a person of another religion, a person with different color of skin, of another country, immigration status, different politics, gender...or whatever reality we imagine.
No true disciple of Christ will ever willing hurt another another.
No true disciple lets anger or fear, or grief. dominate their lives.
We claim we believe that reality changes for the bread and wine, these things become the very person of Jesus Christ.
And yet we can’t believe and see the reality that another human person has inherent dignity?
A true disciple, those saints, have had their reality changed and expanded.
They see differently and act differently.
They are ones truly free.
Time for us to let Jesus Christ change us.
Time for us let the reality of our own lives be altered.
Time for us to take one more step towards freedom.
Beautiful! I think God is telling us: If you want me to leave you alone, I will. If you want me to love you more, I will. That's how much he love us. BTW, my vibration just went up reading your beautiful words. Thank you!
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