Wounds & Witness

 

Deacon Dave · Wounds & Witnesses

Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter, April 14, 2024. The Gospel of St. Luke 24:35-48. Theme: Wounds and Witnesses 

 In today’s Gospel we are brought back in time to Jerusalem where a small band of brothers, called the disciples of the Lord, find themselves struggling with doubt, disappointment and confusion. The One with whom they had lived and learned from over the past few years had been suddenly and violently snatched out of their lives. He in whom they had placed all their hopes for a better future had been arrested, tortured, crucified and buried. 

 But that very morning they began to hear strange stories about him. First, some women in their group who had gone to anoint his body came rushing back with talk about glorious angels at his empty tomb. One of them, Mary Magdalene, even asserted that she had actually seen and spoken with him. And then two other disciples arrived from a journey to Emmaus declaring that they had spent the morning in the company of Jesus, risen and alive. These stories only increased their confusion and toyed with their minds. 

 Then, suddenly, just as the Emmaus disciples were wrapping up their story, Jesus appeared right in the room! He bestowed a blessing of peace upon them and spoke words of reassurance to their incredulous minds. A growing joy begins to enter their hearts and they reach out to touch their beloved Lord and Master. The once horrible and bloody wounds of his hands, feet and side now seem glorious and radiant. These signs of his torture and death now stand out to them as five trophies of victory, five sources grace and blessing that fill them with confidence and restores their hope! 

 And it’s no coincidence that this revelation happened simultaneously with the Emmaus travelers saying how they recognized Jesus in “the breaking of the bread", which was the original name for the Eucharist. I think this reminds us that the Risen Jesus in that room and the Risen Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament are one and the same Lord, it is only the mode of his Presence that differentiates them. Before his death he was limited by the physicality of his humanity which confined him to the Holy Land in the first century. But his Resurrection into glory freed him from this limitation, freed him from the restrictions of earthly life and enabled him to become personally present and available to everyone of every time and in every place, of every century and every culture. 

 Walls cannot stop him now nor can distances curtail his Presence. Even when the Blessed Sacrament is placed in a tabernacle, the Risen Lord is not restrained by its golden doors nor limited by the walls of a parish church. The Power of his Presence bursts forth from wherever the Eucharist is reserved and shines out upon each one of us wherever we might be, as well as upon our neighborhoods and cities. I think this all-pervasive all-encompassing radiating Presence of Christ is what St. Padre Pio meant, when he said one day, “It would be easier for the earth to exist without the sun than without the Eucharist.” 

 An important lesson from this story is that just as the wounds of Jesus were a witness to the reality of his passing through death, so are we meant to be witnesses to the reality that he is now risen and alive. He clearly says this to us in the Gospel and gives us a mission of outreach to others. When we look around our parish church and see so many empty pews we shouldn’t just complain about it but rather ask ourselves if we have been doing what Jesus commanded. In other words, have we been willing to tell others what Jesus has done for humanity in general and what a difference he has made in our own lives in particular? And when we interact with non-believing or non-practicing family or friends, do we look for a natural chance to share faith or, if they are not open to speaking about Christ, have we been doing our best to reflect what Jesus is like by “being Christ” to them? 

 This personal witness is how the Faith has always been most powerfully spread ever since those first days in Jerusalem. St. Luke is reminding us today that as Christians we are meant to be, as Pope Francis puts it, “missionary disciples”. In the closing verses of his Gospel and in his Book of Acts he will tell us how we become empowered and enabled to carry out this great commission of witnessing to Jesus. We will be reading and hearing more about this as the Liturgies of the Easter Season bring us closer and closer to Pentecost Sunday, the feast of the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Mercy From the Fountain of Life

 

Deacon Dave · Mercy From the Fountain of Life

Homily for the Octave of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, April 17, 2024. The Gospel of St. John 20:19-31. Theme: Mercy From the Fountain of Life 

 In the year 2000, Pope St. John Paul II declared the Second Sunday of Easter to be celebrated as “Divine Mercy Sunday”. He did this to fulfill a request made by Jesus through the spiritual experiences of St. Faustina Kowalska, a 20th century Polish nun and mystic. And so the Scriptures and prayers of our liturgy today align beautifully with the devotion to the merciful love of Jesus which is symbolized for us in the image of Divine Mercy that he asked to be painted and distributed. The fundamental purpose of this image is to help us truly live the words that are inscribed upon it, “Jesus, I trust in you”. 

 In this painting, Jesus gazes at us with a look of deep compassion. His posture is shown as if he is walking towards us, indicating that he wants to come into our lives spiritually through the instrumentality of this image. One hand is raised in blessing us while the other touches his chest from which two rays shine forth, a pale one and a red one. These symbolize the blood and water that gushed forth from his heart when it was pierced by the soldier’s lance. 

 Our second reading speaks about these two streams of mercy as witnesses to the Lord’s saving death on the cross. This means that on the natural level they are proof that he died. They give testimony that his heart was pierced causing the very lifeblood and cardiac water to pour out in testimony to the fact. But on the mystical supernatural level they are the streams of grace and mercy that flow to us from the Heart of Christ as the Fountain of Life. Through this Blood and Water we are washed spiritually clean of sin and put into a right relationship of love and union with God. 

 But Jesus knows us and that we often stray from this path and leave the ways of righteousness. He calls us back, again and again, to the Fountain of Life. Through the Divine Mercy devotion, which echoes his Gospel, He assures us that forgiveness is ours for the asking whenever we repent and turn back to him with contrite hearts. He even makes the bold promise that the greater our sin, the greater right we have to his mercy! He reminds us of something we too often forget: that God’s mercy is like a huge immense ocean and our sins are only a tiny drop that gets dissolved in that healing water. So often, too often actually, we are tempted to turn that around and fall for the lie that our darkest sins are beyond God’s reach and we allow them to haunt us even after we’ve asked forgiveness. 

 Perhaps most amazing of all Christ’s words to St. Faustina was the promise he made about Mercy Sunday. He declared that, “whoever approaches the Fountain of Life on this day (Mercy Sunday) will be granted complete remission of sins and punishment." This means that not only are all our sins taken away, but so is any punishment our sins deserve in this world or the next! That’s totally amazing! Could it be true? Well, the Divine Mercy events are only “private revelation” which means that even after the Church had investigated and approved them, we are still totally free to accept or reject them as authentic. But I think that we can easily admit their legitimacy because of the many astounding miracles that have taken place through the Divine Mercy devotion and the intercession of St. Faustina. So on Divine Mercy Sunday we can confidently approach the Fountain of Life, which is the Pierced but Risen Heart of Jesus, and with great trust we can confess our sins. With sincere devotion we can receive Holy Communion with solid hope in the promises of Jesus. 

 But Our Lord wants this devotion to His Divine Mercy to be something more in our daily lives than just a picture and a promise. He wants it to transform us so that we can live and act as people who both claim his mercy for ourselves and allow it to flow through us to others. The message and mission of mercy to which he calls each one of us, is literally as simple and easy to remember as A, B and C. 

 A — Ask. Ask for His mercy. We can invoke God’s mercy for ourselves, our family and friends, as well as for our nation and the whole world, especially by praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. 

 B — Become. Become a merciful person to others. Jesus said in the Gospels that the merciful are blessed and that we will receive mercy to the same extent that we choose to show mercy to others. He’s telling us that we each individually set the limit as to how much of God’s mercy we will be ours. And finally, 

C. Confidence. Completely trust in Jesus. This is the heart of the message of Divine Mercy, just as it is the very heart of the Gospel itself. What this means is that no matter who we are, no matter what choices we may have made, no matter where we find ourselves today, Jesus has his arms out, wide open to receive and embrace us. Just gaze upon a crucifix to see what this unconditional open-armed love looks like. And while looking at that crucifix notice his pierced side from which the Blood and Water flowed as witnesses to his life-saving, life-giving and life-changing mercy,

The Mystery of the Empty Tomb

 

Deacon Dave · The Mystery of the Empty Tomb

Homily for Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024. Theme: The Mystery of the Empty Tomb 

 As we just heard in the Gospel, two thousand years ago in Jerusalem, early in the morning of the first Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene unexpectedly discovered an Empty Tomb. And in every age and century since then, people have been intrigued by the mystery of her find. They read and ponder the eye-witness evidence recorded in the Gospels as they seek answers to the questions that the Empty Tomb raises: What happened to the body of Jesus of Nazareth? And is it really possible that he has risen from the dead? 

 But for various reasons not everybody bothers to ask these questions. To some the very idea of the Resurrection seems ridiculous, and so they don’t even consider it. Others don’t ask because they don’t want to know the answer. Perhaps they have a sense that it will turn their lives upside down if it turns out to be true? And there are those who do ask, but not from the motive of truth-seeking. Instead they are set upon debunking the Easter Story and discrediting Christianity. But even they find out that no one can deny the documented historical fact of the Empty Tomb and the Missing Body. And so, since they must accept the reality of Mary Magdalen’s discovery, they try instead to refute the Resurrection itself usually by appealing to one or more of the following objections to it. 

 First, they propose that the Gospels were written by biased believers and thus are not real history. In other words, they say that the claim of Resurrection is not based on historically reliable documented eye-witness events. However, scholars and historians of various backgrounds, including both believers and unbelievers, disagree with that position. They point out that the Gospels meet strict scholarly criteria for authenticity and that some of the things that they say about Christ are corroborated in ancient non-Christian sources. Their academic research and expertise concludes that on the purely historical level, the Gospels reliably pass on to us what the disciples of Jesus really saw and experienced. 

 Second, there are those who claim that the body of Jesus was stolen and the thieves then claimed a fake Resurrection. In other words, it was all a lie; an ancient conspiracy theory. Ok, if so then we have to ask: who would have had motive to do so? The Romans? They had no reason whatsoever. At the request of the Jewish leadership, they stationed armed guards at the tomb precisely to prevent such a potential theft and lie from happening. The Jewish Leaders? They had even less reason. They considered Christ an insult and blasphemy to their religion and so, if they were the culprits, they could have produced the corpse and put an end to Christianity once and for all right at its beginning. 

 Well then, that leaves us with the disciples of Jesus. Could they have done it? This idea totally ignores the fact that they were cowards locked away in hiding because they were sure that they were next on the death list. Besides, they were no match for the armed Roman soldiers standing guard at the tomb. And as far as the disciples making up a lie about Resurrection goes, it’s important to realize that people usually make up such elaborate stories to elevate their status in the eyes of others and earn perks. So, what kind of perks did the story of an Empty Tomb and Resurrection bring them? Hatred, persecution, imprisonment, torture, and such martyrdoms as being crucified, beheaded and beaten to death. Yet while enduring these sufferings not one of them confessed that they were lying or even admitted to the possibility that they could have been mistaken. 

 Finally, there have been those who claim that the disciples were so emotionally traumatized by the Passion of Christ that they hallucinated the Risen Jesus. Individual hallucinations are indeed possible, but we have documented testimony that on one occasion about 500 saw the Risen Lord among them at the same time and in the same place. Psychologists tell us that it’s completely impossible for everyone in that crowd to have had the same hallucination. Besides, many of the eye-witnesses testified that the One whom they saw and touched, whom they ate with and spoke to, was not a ghost or a phantom, not a figment of their imagination nor a hallucination. He was flesh and bone, mysteriously transformed and awesomely glorious, but still the same Jesus whom they knew and loved. 

 But you know, coming to believe in the Resurrection requires much more than seeing the truth in these solid responses to such objections. This is because our intelligence can only bring us so far. It can inform us that the historical evidence is reliable, reasonable and credible but it cannot make us believe. That is something that only God can do by bestowing the supernatural gift of faith, which he does for whoever sincerely asks. But as I said earlier, there are many today who don't ]seek and ask and so they remain in the darkness. For them, Easter is nothing more than a Spring-time holiday that they perhaps observe out of custom or culture. Sadly, this void leaves them still bound in their sins and still stalked by the gloomy fear of death that haunts every human being. And as a result they expend so much time and so much energy, and in some cases even so much money, trying to escape the inescapable reality of their own mortality. 

 But then there are others who do seek and ask. They ponder the personal testimonies of the eye-witnesses and sense that something amazing happened even if they don’t understand how. They are open to the possibility of the supernatural which enables them to make that all-important step from logic to mystery, from doubt to faith. And as a result, they begin to experience the movements of transformative change within themselves. They find peace of heart because they have come to believe in Jesus Christ as their Crucified Savior who offers them total forgiveness for their sins, no matter what they may have been. They are filled with spiritual joy because they have come to believe in the Risen Lord who now shares with them his victory over the grave, dispelling the fear of death and offering them eternal life as their destiny. The light of Christ shines brightly on them, leading them through life and giving them real hope for the future. 

 So, the bottom line of Easter is this: the experiences of those who encountered the Risen Christ and which have been handed down to us through the Gospels, present to every human being an invitation to seek and to ask, an opportunity to believe or to persist in doubt, a chance to break free from the grip of death or to remain captive in its grasp. The path each person decides to take all depends upon how they choose to respond to the undeniable fact that two thousand years ago in Jerusalem, early in the morning of the first Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene unexpectedly discovered an Empty Tomb.

Ecce Agnus Dei…Ave Crucis Spes Nostra!

 

Deacon Dave · Ecce Agnus Dei…Ave Crucis Spes Nostra!

GOOD FRIDAY HOMILY Theme: Ecce Agnus Dei…Ave Crucis Spes Nostra! 

 Of all the titles we have for Jesus, there’s one that I think is least understood by many of us even though we hear it and say it several times at every Mass. And today, it’s even written on the wood of the cross that we will venerate in a few minutes. You’ll see it just below the figure of Jesus and it says in Latin, “Ecce Agnus Dei”, which means, “Behold the Lamb of God.” So, why do we call Jesus the Lamb of God? What does it mean and what’s its connection with Good Friday? 

 Well, to answer these questions, we need to recall the religious rituals of the Hebrews. Animal sacrifices were central to their worship (and it was done, by the way, in a much more humane manner than our slaughterhouses do today). Their purpose was to seek forgiveness from God. The Jewish priests would symbolically transfer a person’s sins to the animal as a kind of a proxy or a substitute, and then its sacrifice was considered to be the death, so to speak, of the person’s sins. Get the idea? The most important of these ritual sacrifices were those of the Passover lambs in the Temple of Jerusalem. 

 Of course, these sacrifices were insufficient for the purpose. And they gave rise to the false idea that humans can obtain forgiveness from God by saying the right words and performing certain actions. This attitude is why the Pharisees, for example, cling so tenaciously to the exact observance of the Torah, the Law. But to set us straight, Jesus taught us that the forgiveness of sins is not something that we can buy or earn or achieve by our own power. Rather, it's a totally free gift that God offers us for no other reason than love. And Jesus didn't just talk about it, he showed us what this sin-forgiving love looks like in action. He took upon himself the totality of our sins, freely, intentionally and deliberately out of love for us and for our salvation. 

 After the Resurrection, the disciples reflected on the death of Jesus and that it took place on the very same day and at the very same time that the lambs were being sacrificed in the temple. They saw a definite relationship between the two, especially as they recalled the words of the prophet Isaiah that we heard in our first reading that said, “It was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured…he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins…and the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all…like a lamb he was led to the slaughter.” So they made the connection between Jesus’ sacrifice and that of the Jewish rituals. They knew that it was much more than a coincidence that he died on the very same day and at the very same time that the Passover lambs were being sacrificed in the temple. Putting all these things together, they began to refer to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 

 But there was a real and unique difference between the old rituals and the new sacrifice. In the old sacrifice sinful men were making a sin-offering to God. But in the new it was now God himself, who had become the sinless Man, Jesus of Nazareth, who made the sin-offering. And there’s a couple of pretty awesome things about that. First, being God who sees and knows all things meant that Jesus’ sacrifice covered all of humanity’s sins - past, present, and future, including yours and mine personally. And second, since he was not just human but also divine the love with which he offered himself was infinite love, totally pure love, utterly unselfish love, in short it was perfect love. And the power of this perfect love far outweighed that of our offenses, making his sacrifice on the cross the perfect apology for sin on behalf of the entire human race in general, and of each and every one of us individually. 

 But here’s the thing: even though Jesus did his part to save us, its effects are not automatically applied to us. In other words, we have to want to be saved. We have to do our part to claim it because God never forces his gifts upon us, not even the awesome gift of his total forgiveness. He respects our freedom and so waits for each one of us to ask for it, to acknowledge our wrong-doings and receive forgiveness in return. This gift of immense mercy was made possible for us through the Holy Cross which was the instrument of our salvation. And so this is why we have the ritual of honoring it today. This is also why you’ll see on our cross today another Latin inscription written on its horizontal bar that says, “Ave Crucis, Spes Nostra” which means, “Hail to the Cross our Hope.” 

 So, in a few minutes when we come forward to venerate the Holy Cross, let’s praise and thank the Lamb of God for sacrificing himself upon it for our sins. And let’s make our veneration of the Holy Cross an expression of repentance which opens up our hearts to be cleansed by the blood of that Lamb. In this way we can spiritually prepare ourselves to celebrate a joyous Easter, rejoicing in the fact that our sins, which were crucified with him on the cross and then buried with him in the tomb, remained behind when he rose from the grave…which means that they are dead and gone forever.

The Triple-Message of Palm Sunday

 

Deacon Dave · Triple-Message of Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion, March 24, 2024. Theme: The Triple-Message of Palm Sunday 

This Sunday is unique among our liturgies for two reasons, one of which is that the Gospel is proclaimed twice instead of just once. And in addition to having a double Gospel, today’s commemoration has a double-name as well as: Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. This intentionally reminds us that the palms we carry in procession today lead us to Good Friday. They can also teach us three things about ourselves as we enter upon this Most Holy of Weeks. 

 First, Palm Sunday shows us that we can be fickle, so often living as “fair-weather friends” of God. It’s so very easy for us to judge and condemn the cheering crowds of Palm Sunday who then turned on Jesus just a few days later, calling for his crucifixion. They wanted a Messiah who would defeat the Romans and bring autonomy to Israel. So when Jesus was arrested and taken captive by their oppressors, they saw they had been mistaken and their hopes trashed. So they turned on Him because He wasn’t the kind of Savior they wanted. And yet…before we point a finger at them…we have to stop and examine our own attitudes towards Jesus. Have I ever shaken a fist at God, like the people in that crowd, because he wasn’t acting like the kind of Savior I expected and wanted Him to be in my life? And so, we have to ask ourselves quite honestly if we also see in Him only what we want to see for our personal benefit? 

 Second, Palm Sunday highlights our role in the Passion. The Liturgy helps us to see that the participants in the Passion were not just the historical figures of the past but also includes us! This is why everyone has a part in the Gospel proclamation today. And like the crowd in Jerusalem on that first Good Friday, we have also called for the crucifixion of Christ, perhaps not with our lips but certainly by the choices we have made in our lives. The history of each one of us shows that there have been times when we have betrayed Jesus with Judas; that we have denied Him with Peter; and that we have abandoned Him along with the other disciples. Every one of us can relate to Pilate’s cowardice in caving into social pressure and choosing popularity over doing what was right. Palm Sunday reminds us that we are indeed participants in the Passion and our sins have contributed to the suffering and death of the Lord. 

 Third, palms are a sign of Jesus’ victory. Despite the fickleness of our hearts and the litany of our sins, Christ died for us. And not just for “us” as in the cumulative sense of the human race. But individually and personally, for each one of us, as if you or I were the only ones in the whole universe who were in need of salvation! And on top of all that, while struggling to breathe on the cross, He asked God the Father to forgive us because we truly do not realize what we are doing when we choose to sin. And so the palms we hold in our hands and carry in procession today are a sign of the victory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. His is a triumphant victory of love over hatred; of grace over sin; of forgiveness over condemnation; of eternal life over everlasting death. 

 So when we bring our palms home and put them behind our crucifixes - or wherever you display yours during the Easter Season- let them be a silent but powerful reminder about the triple-message they convey. Let them assure us that despite our fickleness and our failures; despite our part in contributing to His Passion, Jesus shows us in an unmistakable way that He loves us beyond measure. He calls each one of us to believe this and trust in Him with total confidence. To withhold this trust wounds His Heart which was pierced through for us by the soldier’s lance. Holding our blessed palms let’s go forward into the bittersweet days of Holy Thursday and Good Friday, never forgetting that it brought Him - and will bring us - to the victory, glory and eternal life of Resurrection!

The Mystery of the Cross: Dying Gives Life!

 

Deacon Dave · The Mystery of the Cross: Dying Gives Life!

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent, March 17, 2024. Gospel of St. John 12:20-33. Theme: The Mystery of the Cross: Dying Gives Life! 

 Today's Gospel is about an ordinary encounter between Jesus and some Greeks who have come to see him, most likely because they have heard about his wondrous powers. But it turns into an occasion for Christ to teach them what it means to follow him as a disciple. I think that their simple request, "We would like to see Jesus," expresses a desire or at least a curiosity that is within all of us. For who among us doesn’t want to seek and then find the awesome presence of the miracle-working Christ in our lives? 

 These Gentile seekers, like so many others, were most likely hoping for a miracle or an answer to some perplexing question in their lives. We do not know any details whatsoever about their meeting with him, but I am guessing that the Lord’s words about death, burial and new life were not what they expected to hear. Perhaps like them, you have heard things about Jesus that have both intrigued you and perplexed you at the same time? Perhaps, like these Greeks, his words about dying and rising repel you but at the same time mysteriously attract you and you want to know more? What does he really mean? 

 Jesus speaks of a grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying in order to bear much fruit. That illustration would have made sense to his listeners whose daily lives were intimately tied to the earth and its natural cycles. But then he continues on and seems to start talking in riddles. He uses this growth process of wheat as a metaphor about following him, about hating one’s life in order to end up really finding it and living it into eternity! In other words, Jesus was saying that just as the grain-seed must undergo a process of death and burial in order to bring forth new life, so too we, his disciples, must let go of our old ways and bury them as dead and gone if we want to become more fully alive and transformed in Christ. 

 This “death of the ego” is what “hating one’s life” means in biblical language. It doesn’t mean despising our human existence as we might think it means in modern English! This on-going process of “hating one’s life”, that is, of eradicating selfishness and following Jesus’ example, is not easy but neither is it optional for the person who seeks to be a Christian in truth and just not in name. And just as the seed, once buried in the earth, eventually bursts forth into new life, so will we also begin to burst forth with new life in Christ as we put ourselves aside and humbly surrender to the teachings of his Gospel. 

 Following Jesus requires this radical reordering of our priorities. We must “fall to the ground and die”, so to speak, to our self-focused plans and our stubborn insistence in living life on our own terms. Our innermost desire to see Jesus and be with him overrides our lesser desires and gives us the willingness to let go of anything that is an obstacle to developing and cherishing our relationship with Christ. When we die to self and bury the grain-seed of our pretenses and pride (which so often are really ways of hiding fear and insecurity) it brings something new and beautiful to life within us. 

 It breaks open our hard outer shell and releases new life in the Holy Spirit, whom we first received at Baptism and in a deeper outpouring at Confirmation. The Spirit waters the buried seed and soon enough signs of budding life begin to slowly blossom and bloom into Christian virtue and holiness. We won’t see this development happening right away, but our growth will be steady so long as we keep tilling the soil of our lives with humility, surrender and trust in Christ. 

 Ultimately, when all is said and done, Jesus' words to the Greeks and to us today point to the cross, which is always at the center of Christian life and spirituality. He speaks of his own impending death as the culmination of his mission on earth, of it being the ultimate act of sacrificial love. As we continue our journey through this season of Lent, we are called to walk with Jesus on the road to Calvary. He asks us to embrace the cross out of love and not to run away from it, for it is the instrument of God’s transforming grace. 

 So, let’s respond wholeheartedly to the invitation to follow him that Jesus offers us today. Let’s be willing to let go of our old selves, to die to our old desires, and to embrace a new life that God offers us in Christ. He promises to be with us every step of the way and assures us that, in exchange for losing our lives for his sake, he will transform them into lives that exist with him forever.

Rejoice! You Are Saved by Grace Through Faith!

 

Deacon Dave · Rejoice! You Are Saved by Grace Through Faith!

Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent, March 10, 2024. Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10/ Theme: Rejoice! You Are Saved by Grace Through Faith! 

 One short 8-word-phrase from today’s second reading was a hot button issue back in the 16th century. It caused a volatile, and at times even violent, conflict among Catholics and the new phenomenon of emerging Protestantism. I suppose such a passionate debate shouldn’t be all that surprising because those 8 words ,“by grace you have been saved through faith”, deal with one of the most vital questions of Christianity: how are human beings saved? In other words, how is a person freed from the spiritual alienation from God that is caused by sin and leads to eternal death and put into a right relationship with God that leads to eternal life? 

 The Protestant reformers erroneously argued that the Church had corrupted the meaning of this verse by teaching that people could earn salvation by doing religious works. In response, Catholic leadership condemned the Protestant position as heretical, pointing out that Jesus called for a personal response to His invitation to salvation. Both sides were so adamant on proving the others wrong that neither stopped to really listen to what the other was saying. And sadly this led to the scandal of a hostile division of Christianity that caused a bleeding rupture in the Mystical Body of Christ which is still an open wound in the Church today. 

 Fortunately, by the mid-20th century both sides of the conflict began to walk together on a pathway towards reconciliation. For the first time in nearly 400 years, the Catholic hierarchy was willing to listen instead of argue and because of this openness prompted by Vatican II many Protestant leaders became willing to engage in mutual dialogue. Both sides sent representatives to theological meetings and it was discovered that, while differences remained, there was a significant amount of common ground on this fundamental Christian teaching after all. In an extremely simplified form here is what that all-important 8-word-phrase “by grace you have been saved through faith” means: 

By grace... means that salvation is a totally free and unmerited gift from God. And while we cannot and do not earn it in any way, shape or form, we obviously do have to respond to God’s invitation to accept salvation in one way or another. How we respond is still a matter of debate, but all agree that even our response is made possible by the grace of God because we cannot save ourselves. It is something beyond our limited finite human capabilities. 

You have been saved...in Biblical language, the word "salvation" has the same root word as "healing". To be saved means to be healed. Healed of what? Of sin and its effects on us, such as a tendency towards selfishness and its ultimate consequence of spiritual death. So the words "you have been saved" can also be understood as "you have been healed from your terminal sin-sickness and can live a spiritually healthy life here and hereafter." Both Catholics and Protestants agree that this healing is only possible through Christ and that it is a necessary supernatural remedy for our sin-affected human condition. 

Through faith...whenever we encounter the word "faith" in the Bible it can and should be understood as "trust" because they are both the same word in biblical language. To trust (or believe) in Christ means to wholeheartedly turn to Him as Savior and to have confidence both in what He has said (the Gospel) and what He has done for us (the Passion and Resurrection). A difference that remains between the two sides is that we Catholics hold that the ministry of the Church established by Jesus Christ is a non-negotiable part of our relationship with Him. Protestants, on the other hand, vary on this role of the Church depending upon their denomination’s particular interpretation of Christianity. 

 But when all is said and done, does salvation-grace “work”? Or to put it better, can we see tangible evidence that salvation-grace truly overrides the selfishness of sick-sickness in the human person and enables them to become more like Jesus Christ? Well as we say, the “proof is in the pudding”! All we need to do is look at the lives of those who “by grace have been saved through faith” and have embraced Jesus and his Gospel wholeheartedly. They can be found in all branches of Christianity. We can see in their lives how sin and its influence becomes neutralized and the grace of God takes its place through their deep relationship with Jesus Christ. 

 By grace through faith these heroic Christians put their own well-being on the back burner, so to speak, and modeled their lives after the pattern of Jesus in so many different ways. They cared for the sick despite danger to themselves even in the midst of contagious epidemics. They stood up for the rights and dignity of the poor and oppressed in the face of death-threats and violent opposition. They proclaimed the primacy of God and His Law in civic life above the tyrannical rule of politics and economics. And many of them gave the ultimate witness to the transforming power of salvation-grace-by-faith in the shedding of their blood, the offering up of their lives for the sake of Christ and on behalf of others. 

 This inner transformation of the human person, which is the fruit of being saved by grace through faith, is precisely what the Gospel is about today. Jesus is reminding us that He, the Crucified Savior, is the remedy for sin-sickness and that the salvation-grace He won for us by His Cross and Resurrection is the only sure cure. He assures us that He comes to each one of us out of a motivation of love as our merciful Savior not as a condemning Judge. He gives eternal life in place of spiritual death to anyone who will turn to Him in faith, that is, in trust. Today’s Gospel contains such a consoling and comforting message that it’s no wonder a passage from it has become the most quoted verse of the New Testament, if not of the entire Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3:16)