2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1
St. Luke 6:31-36
St. Luke 6:31-36
We have witnessed today the mystery
of our salvation as Lisa, Zach, and Isaac have put on Christ in baptism; they
and Ed have been filled with the Holy Spirit in chrismation and are now fully
integrated into the life of Christ’s Body, the one, holy, catholic, and
apostolic Church. They have renounced
Satan and all the corruptions of evil in response to St. Paul’s
admonition: “Come out from among them
and be separate, says the Lord…I will be a Father to you and you shall be my
sons and daughters.” And they will be
the first today to receive our Lord’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist as they
partake of the Heavenly Banquet for the very first time.
Of course, the Lord’s calling to
them is the same as it is to the rest of us:
to turn away from everything that holds us back from participating fully
in the life of Christ, from shining brightly with the divine glory for which we
were created. The hard truth, however,
is that our journey to the Kingdom is not as easy as making it through the
ceremonies of baptism and chrismation. Instead,
we actually have to live as those who have died to sin and risen to a new life
in baptism. We have to embody the fruits
of the Holy Spirit and become instruments for His work in the world. Our body and blood—our entire life—must
become a living icon of the Savior’s obedient offering of every dimension of
His life to the Father.
That’s a tall order and none of us
fills it perfectly, but we are reminded in today’s gospel lesson where we need
to start; namely, with mercy. None of us
deserves the mercy of God; by definition, mercy is given, not earned. Baptism, chrismation, and communion are not
rewards for good behavior, but totally undeserved blessings for those who know
that they are unworthy of them even as they do their best to live in accordance
with God’s will for their lives. If we
are so bold as to accept the divine love and forgiveness for our sins and
failings, we have an obligation to extend the same love and forgiveness to
others. If we judge and condemn people
while claiming to trust in the mercy of the Lord, our faith is a sham, a fraud,
a lie. And instead of worshiping our
Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ—who said from the cross, “Father, forgive
them for they know not what they do”—we really worship ourselves, which is a
pathetic form of idolatry by which we will exclude ourselves from the joy of
the Kingdom.
Well, we obviously don’t want to do
that. So let’s get to work. Let’s ask who are those in our lives who do
not love us, whom we count as our enemies, whom we would like to see fail or
least whom we wish would just go away and stop bothering us? Surely, we all have them. Instead of fantasizing about their doom, we
should help them as best we can, pray for them, and show them the same patient
consideration and forgiveness that that the Lord has shown us. Maybe we are right and they are wrong, as
best we can tell. Maybe our line of work
makes it our responsibility to correct or discipline them in some way. Maybe we really do have to protect others,
such as our children or someone else for whom we are responsible, from their
bad influence. Nonetheless, we can
refuse to hate them; we can act decently toward them; and we do the best we can
under the circumstances to help them, even if they will likely never return the
favor. We can still treat them as we
would like others to treat us.
Whether we were baptized today or
decades ago, the calling is to the same:
to be a living icon of the mercy that Jesus Christ has brought to sinners
like you and me. In order to do that, we must struggle daily to separate
ourselves from evil in all its forms. There is no better place to start than in how
we treat the people with whom we have a problem. But God is gracious and if we will do our
best to show them the same mercy that we ask of Him, then we will be His sons
and daughters. As Christ said, “He is
kind to the unthankful and the evil.
Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.” That is the most basic challenge today to us
all. If we have put on Christ in baptism
at any point in our lives, let’s start acting like it in how we respond to the
people we love to hate.
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