I wonder if we as Catholics sell ourselves short. For example when people describe themselves as being on a bus to Heaven with the priests and religious driving. The thought is that we live moral lives to earn our right to stay on the bus.

That is just bad teaching. It is completely wrong. For it implies that we live a sedentary existence waiting to be saved when the bus arrives at the big depot in the sky.

This is not who we are. We are not passengers on a bus to Heaven. We actually have an active role that God gives to us in His plan for salvation. God literally calls us to be agents for His plan of salvation to the whole world. Where does it say this? In many places, but not the least of which is the second reading.

If you look carefully at the second reading, you will see about the middle of the passage, that God has shared with us his plan of salvation. He has not shared with us just the admission ticket to salvation, but his plan of salvation. Understand what that means. It is not that we are waiting for the calvary to come over the hill to rescue us and bring us to freedom.When someone shares with you His plan, He is sharing it with you in front of a map, with his description of what resources he has where and what plans He is working through to bring his plans forward. If you were talking to a general, you would be in the war room, if you were talking to a CEO you would be in the board room. In either case, you are not riding a bus or waiting for God’s armies to rescue you, you are active agents in his plan of salvation. You are the calvary. You are the army.

As one priest explained to me about a year after I returned to the Church, we literally have, by God’s design, the call to see behind the curtain a bit. God calls us by our baptism and confirmation and our weekly participation in the Eucharist to be agents of His work infused with his wisdom to assist in  bringing forth his plan. Understand what that means, we are not like those as I said in the valley waiting for the Lord to bring his army over the mountains, we are like those standing on the mountains looking over the valley and planning how to assist in  bringing about God’s plan of salvation.

There is a big lie that many people fall for, that we are the stupid savages who still believe in God and are not like the advanced people who gave up belief in God a long time ago in exaltation of the human.That is the lie. In fact, in some local universities if you believe in God you are refused the position of department head and, I have heard that in some cases you may be refused tenure. They are wrong because you are not naive ones, you are the wise ones and the wisdom that we have comes from our relationship with God himself. This is why we have the sacraments, to strengthen us in our ability to carry out God’s plan because we will engage in much resistance.

Toward the end of this letter, Paul speaks about spiritual warfare. He explains that we are in a battle against spiritual forces that seek the destruction of God’s creation in humanity. God gives us the tools to fight in this warfare and is with us all the way.

If you look at the Gospel you can see an example of how this works. As the apostles were sent out to heal and cast out demons, so we are sent out to bring the message of the Gospel to the world, to heal people of the self-centered ignorance and testify to the powerful truths that are beyond the grasp of those who reject God. Many of whom are unwittingly being made prey of by those spiritual forces cited earlier. Our mission as people of faith seems so benign, but it is not, it is a mission to bring forth God’s plan of salvation just as strong as Ike’s plans for the liberation of Europe in the 1940’s. We use the tools of daily prayer, of communal prayer at mass, of the quest for holiness of regular confession and reception of the Eucharist.

So how do we do this? When  we are infused with God’s wisdom and put it into practice, we become agents teaching that truth to others. That is the reason why we live the morality we do, it is not to earn our way to heaven, but as a tool of God’s wisdom put into practice. This is why our morality cannot change with the times. The morality itself is the tool of teaching God’s wisdom. Therefore, our morality is not the ticket for us to stay on the bus, it is the tool we used to promote the wisdom of God.

Let us look at it in light of the Gospel teaching. Christ sends the apostles out to heal and cast out demons. Now in theory we can do this and that is part of our Catholic tradition and calling. This is what we call miracles, but miracles are not everyday issues otherwise we would not call them miracles. By shoring up our morality we are strong enough to lead others to the healing way of life that leads us and them to the fullness of life. So, we teach our Catholic way of life and its morality to the youth that they may be sources of life to the youth. That is why it is such a gravely sinful act to not take that role seriously. It is essential to teach youth their faith and how it is built up by prayer so that they can be agents of God’s powerful healing and enlightening presence. This is our role as a community to teach it to ourselves and to others.

This is why we need the sacrament of confession, to help strengthen our ability to serve God. Confession is not the ticket that keeps us on the bus, it is the shop where we learn how to strengthen our mission of serving God.

This is what also needs to be taught to our youth as well.

One of the reasons we have a drug problem in Massachusetts is that we have failed in our ability to teach about sin and the sacrament of healing called the Sacrament of Reconciliation. When was the last time you heard it taught that drug abuse was a sin?  A grave sin that needs to be confessed in the sacrament of confession. I do teach it here by the way. Yet, it indeed is and we need to teach it. Why? By teaching it and leading others to understand that truth we become agents of healing just as the Apostles did as well.

This is all part of our role as participants in God’s plan of salvation given to us at Baptism and Confirmation and fortified at the Eucharist. When you come to receive the Eucharist keep that in mind as you get out of the pew and walk down the aisles to receive.

We are not on any bus, we are standing on the hill, overlooking the hand and living as the army to liberate all from the forces that imprison them. Our flag is Christ.

God Bless You,

Fr. Robert J Carr

Fr. Carr is an alliance member of the New Song Community (Canção Nova). He is the pastor of Holy Trinity Quincy, MA and is the editor of this blog. He is the author of several books, blogs and hundreds of videos all of which you may find on Youtube. He also has a regular radio program on WebRadio Canção Nova. Which he podcasts on Mixcloud and here on Catholicismanew.
You can follow him on twitter as @frbobcarr and on Google Plus as +Fr. Robert Thoughts, comments on the homily? Let us know at Facebook