The readings for today tie in nicely with the educational tone of a Baccalaureate Celebration.
In the first reading Moses is pleading with the people of God to choose the blessing and not the curse that he places before them. At God's command he must place both so that the people can use their free will to choose the blessing and not be forced to do so. The blessing at this point involves the following of a lot of external prescriptions, regulations and laws – this being the concrete way that the people could know that they were being pleasing to God. Not salvation, but comfort comes from following the letter of the "Old Law" – while the events were being prepared for the arrival of Jesus and the
"New Law."
In the second reading we see evidence of such an arrival as St. Paul is speaking to the Romans. Moving far beyond comfort, we now have actual justification of our lives – our moral lives – freely bestowed upon us by redemption wrought through the shedding of the Blood of Christ. Faith in him and in that Precious Blood now suffices for our justification – "apart from works of the law!" But we must be very clear here: "apart from the works of the OLD LAW" and not the "New Law" which Jesus personally gives to us: the law of LOVE: LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU! This is my will, this is my Father's will and this combined with FAITH will get you into heaven!
Those who cry "Lord, Lord" and do their own deeds using the name of Jesus will not be saved on the Last Day: only those who do the will of the heavenly Father will be saved.
Jesus cannot make it any more clear than that! Then he says if you listen to what I am saying a put it into practice – if your FAITH is converted into LOVING ACTION AND SERVICE both in the community of the church and in the world – then, for you, it will be like building a house on rock rather than sand; and no matter what comes along in life – you will be secure – and you will end up where you want to be on the Last Day!
What this has to do with education, graduation and the next step for our graduates is this: Dear graduates, everything that you have been taught your entire lives to this point in school must be combined with everything you have been taught here in church:
reason and faith are necessarily and irrevocably joined together!
Reason alone can only go so far! Reason for example, can deduce that God exists – but reason alone cannot provide a real and substantial connection between you and God; and you and your brothers and sisters in a vital and important way. Faith alone would also be rootless. It would be pie-in-the-sky! Faith needs to be reasonable – and it has to lead to action - service! Faith unlocks the depths of the mysteries of reason – and primes the engines of motivation in our hearts - to do good deeds. And when faith and reason walk and operate hand in hand, some amazing results can take place both in the community of faith, and in the community of society!
It is the will of God for his highest form of creation – you and all of us – to use both. I place before you the challenge of an option today: go it alone, using reason without faith and see how far you get; or go, commence, using both faith and reason and experience how deep your understanding can be and how much you will want to use your findings to do something - to find solutions - to make a better church and a better world both for yourselves and for others. Future leaders in the Church – future leaders in the world will come from you and your classmates; and the generous, loving, thoughtful decisions you make about how you will allow God to lead you through life!
You are the hope of the future. With God as your rock – with faith in Jesus as your anchor – with the wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit for using the intelligence that God gives you – give God all glory by letting him use you in an awesome way - as he wills! You will be amazed at what happens if you do! Choose the blessing, my dear friends, and not the curse!
I am the vine, you are the branches, says the Lord; whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit!
No comments:
Post a Comment