One of the foremost exorcists in the Church worldwide, explains that if we want to understand the teachings of Jesus we can find them explained in the Bible. He explained that we just simply follow what the Bible says. Today’s gospel reading gives us a simple explanation of what is required for salvation.
Let us look at the context.
People complain to Jesus about the aftermath of an uprising in which the rebels, fighting against the Roman Empire, are killed and their blood is mixed in with other blood Pilate used to sacrifice to the Roman gods. This means that these Jews were killed and sacrificed to idols, which for a Jew and even a Christian is about as horrible as it gets.
Pilate, was not known for his gentleness and tact. Most likely what happened is that the rebels were part of a band of Jews who believed it was wrong for them to offer any tax to the Romans for they worshiped only God and He is their king. There was a type of battle and the rebels were killed including their leader, Judas of Galilee. So, if you think about it, Pilate, it seems, in his way, offered their blood to his gods as a kind of insult to injury to these rebels. Indeed, mostly like the Jews became aware of this by Pilate promulgating his action to send a message to the rest of the Jewish community.
The Jews approaching Jesus are appalled. This is where Jesus responds, by saying if you find this appalling, look at yourselves if you do not repent. You will find yourself in no better position.
This should not surprise us because his mission is about preaching the repentance of sins, picking up where John the Baptist left off, who also preached repentance. Jesus called people to turn from sin and do the will of God.
We lose this understanding quickly if we believe that all we need to do is be good people to be saved. There is nothing in the Bible that indicates this. Indeed, going back to the exorcist’s teaching, we can look at what the Bible says and it says that we are to repent of our sins and do do the will of God. We cannot be saved if we do not do both. There is no other option. However, God gives us the blessing of the sacraments to help us to do both, repent of our sins and do the will of God.
The more we repent of our sins, the more we come to understand what God wills us to do in service to Him as we seek to love Him and our neighbors.. However, if we do not repent of our sins, then we drift in our ability to understand God’s will for us in our lives. We get lost in untethered human philosophy and go from one idea of good versus evil to another while we essentially end up being locked out of the Kingdom of God.
Before our morality in this country was untethered from God, good people sought to the do the will of God and bad people went to prison.
Now in today’s morality, good people do what some political expert says and bad people go to church. Isn’t that the message we see on TV every day?
But if we want to know what the good thing is we need to be tethered to the wisdom of God and we learn that by seeking to be open to God’s grace as much as possible. As traditional Catholic spirituality teaches: for us to be in a state of grace, which means, not a state of sin.
This simple formula of repent and do the will of God, which comes right from the mouth of Jesus Christ himself was lost over the past several decades. What replaced it is that we need to be good people, that we need to pursue social justice and work not to offend anyone, and rarely is there a word taught about the need to repent of our sins and do the will of God. Of course, in order to do that we need to understand sin and have a good sense of what sin is.
A lot of people when they hear of repentance, they quickly connect it with a fear of Hell and avoid any thought of it because ”Who wants to think of Hell?” So the quickest way to avoid even considering that question is to avoid any thought of it at all. However, this misses the point. Hell is real, yes people go there, the saints taught that the majority of people go there. But our mission is to get as many people into Heaven as possible and the only way for that to happen is for people, including ourselves, to repent of our sins and to do the will of God.
Repent means literally to turn around. However, in this context it means simply to choose to be in the presence of God and to not go to Hell. What I mean is this. It is Church teaching that the person who loves God perfectly and has perfect contrition for his or her sins has no reason to fear Hell and will go to Heaven immediately upon death. Yet, that person is rare indeed. He certainly is not me, and most likely is not you. Maybe in the future he might be me or you, but presently, I doubt any of us can claim this perfect contrition.
However, if we clearly have a desire to go to Heaven and be with God, and therefore, desire to not go to Hell then the Sacrament of Reconciliation is available to us to provide us with the grace we need to continue on our journey to Heaven. This is as long as we avoid sin. This is the reason for the sacraments, They are channels of God’s grace to lead us to Heaven. It is after all God’s will that all are saved and He has given us the sacraments to help us on the way.
When we repent of our sins and avail ourselves of the sacraments, we grow in grace and are better able to do God’s will in our lives. That is where the helping the poor, giving alms, being people of prayer, etc all come it. Yet, none of that can become a part of our lives if we do not first repent of our sins. This is what Jesus says in today’s gospel passage.
How much has that message been lost in our Church today. The issue is that few people go to Church and of course even fewer go confession. God gave us this sacrament as an avenue of grace. Without the sacrament, our only recourse to that sanctifying grace is to be so much in love with God and so successful in our fight against sin that we make St. Francis look like Al Capone.
God has also given this community, this Church to be a sign of the call to repent. That is why the Church is here. If there is a reason our numbers are not what they used to be, it is because we lost the prime mission of why we are here: to call those around us and ourselves as well to repentance of sins so we all may go to Heaven. Anything else we do has no value if that is not our first priority. The same can be said for the Archdiocese and the church worldwide. If you look at what our priority has been at this parish, if it has not been calling people to repent of their sins and to build a community to lead more people to do the same, then we have not been living the mission Christ called this community to do.
Jesus does not cast anyone into Hell, they cast themselves by choosing not to be part of God’s kingdom. The point of repentance is that it is our response to God’s invitation to turn from sin and do the will of God. If we refuse to repent, then we refuse God’s invitation to His kingdom and there is no other place for us to go that is in his Kingdom. Hell is what remains, for that is the place created not by God, but by those angels and humans that rejected God. Hell is real.
Our mission is to get people to understand that stark reality and to choose God over Hell. I personally believe that because this has not been understood to the level it should, one fruit of it is the current drug problem we have in our area. Those alleged heroin dealers arrested this week by the Quincy Police Department are on their way to Hell for living in sin, rejecting God. If they die tonight, there is no hope for their salvation. Why? Because Jesus explains it well, there is only one way to Heaven after Baptism, repentance and doing the will of God. Period. There is no other option. Refusing to take that option leaves people no choice but to be where they chose to be when the died by refusing to repent and by rejecting God’s will: wailing and gnashing of teeth. However, the Church, as an agent of mercy, is demonstrating the better option. Repent and do the will of God. Return to the sacraments including weekly Eucharist regular repentance and the wisdom that grows within it as a result. Then you will understand God’s will in your life grow in your ability to live it.
There are plenty of places to go to confession after making a good examination of conscience and working to develop a good sense of sin. No confessed sin is unforgivable and it would be hard to shock the ears of most seasoned priests.
Jesus says it clearly, repent and live the will of God. Failing that there is no hope for anyone. Our presence here is so that we may accept that message and preach it to others. Let us resolve to do it this week and every week, especially as we focus on the great day of our salvation Easter Sunday.
Fr. Carr is member of the Segundo Elo of the Canção Nova Community. He is the pastor of Holy Trinity Quincy, MAand 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. You can follow him on twitter as @frbobcarr and on Google plus as+FrRobertCarr. Thoughts, comments on the homily? Let us know at Facebook