Christianity does not begin by reforming
society; it begins by regenerating men.
Fulton Sheen Missions and the World Crisis
(1963) 62
To
be in the Church is surely the most wonderful of all things, it may not really
feel like it, in fact it may well feel the complete opposite, but that may in
fact be the point: the Church is not simply made up of people whom I like or
whose company I keep, but rather of all the baptized. Through our baptism we enter
the Church, we put on Christ, we share in his death and resurrection, we are
regenerate: born again of water and the Holy Spirit to share new life in Him
and to live out that new life and love in the World.
This is what Christ gives us freely, as
a gift through his offering of himself upon the Cross. Thus, the prophet
Zephaniah in this morning’s first reading can say that ‘I will pour out a
spirit of grace and a plea for mercy when they look on me, on him whom they
have pierced’ it anticipates the saving work of Christ, it is a prophesy
which finds its fulfilment in Him. That is why a few verses later at the start of
Chapter 13 he says ‘On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the
house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and
uncleanness’. Our baptism and the death of Christ on the Cross is that
fountain which washes us from our sins and uncleanness, which heals and restores
us to live Christ’s risen life.
This is why St Paul in his letter to the
Galatians can extol the wonderful nature of baptism – we are all equal in our
common baptism, there are no distinctions whatsoever between those who are
saved in Christ, who have put on Christ. There is then an equality in baptism
and salvation, which makes Christianity radically different, we are the new
Israel, the body of Christ, and the community of the baptized is open to all
those who believe and trust in Jesus Christ. In becoming his we are called to
be like him and to share in both his joy and sufferings, so that we find our
true identity and true meaning in our lives when we put on him.
It is not then for nothing that Our Lord
asks ‘But who do you say that I am?’ It is a question which he asks his
disciples and which he also asks each and every one of us, ‘Who do we say that
he is?’ Some long-haired proto-hippie communist? A prophet? A misunderstood
charismatic healer? Or God? The Creator and Sustainer of all, begotten of his
Father before all worlds; con–substantial, co–eternal, and the only name under
heaven or earth by which we may be saved, the gate, the sheep–fold, the Good
Shepherd, Our Great High Priest and willing victim, pierced for our
transgressions, wounded for our iniquities, to cleanse us and all humanity of
its sin and uncleanness, to heal and restore us, so that we may share his risen
life, and have eternal life in Him.
Our response to this has to be to take
up our Cross and follow him – we have to be ready to be crucified, to suffer and
die just like He did, and to live in a world which sees us and our faith as of
no relevance or importance whatsoever, where we are to be pitied and blamed by ‘enlightened’
secularists and atheists who with a patronising sneer despise us and all for
which we stand. Their attitude is not different from those Roman magistrates
who condemned our forebears for refusing to worship a human being, the emperor,
and saving that honour for God, and God alone.
As Christians we honour and worship the
God who loves us, who gave himself for us, gladly and willingly, to heal and
restore our human nature, so that we might be born again not of the flesh but
by water and the Spirit, so that we and all the world might be transformed and
have the fullness of life in him.
Since we are all one in Christ Jesus let
us follow him, let us live lives where we carry our Cross each and every day
and love him and serve him, in that knowledge that whatever happens there is
nothing which can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Our lives
may not be easy, but whatever we face good or ill we do so in the knowledge
that we are loved by God, and that in living out our faith in Him in the world,
His grace is at work in us, transforming us through the sacrament of his Body
and Blood which we have come here to receive, to be strengthened for our
journey of faith, proclaiming Christ’s truth and saving love to the world, and
following him, by taking up our cross, and losing our lives for his sake, for
what indeed would it profit someone to gain the whole world but lose his own
soul? Power, wealth, possessions, position, honour, all the things of this
world are empty and without meaning or worth compared with Christ.
Let us follow him, and deepen our trust
and faith in Him, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and pray that his
grace may be at work in us So that we may believe and be transformed, and share
our faith with others that they too may believe and be transformed and give
glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed
as is most right and just all might, majesty, glory, dominion, and power, now
and forever.
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