The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friends,

We often see the wonder in God's creation. The beauty, harmony, power, wisdom, etc. of His creation fills us with awe. He has brought all things into being from nothing. Everything that is, both visible and invisible, have been made by God and belong to Him. This even includes us. It is a peculiar phenomenon that we marvel at the rest of creation, but we so often fail to see our own God-given magnificence. The rest of creation reflects its Creator, but we most closely resemble Him. We are made in His Image and Likeness.

We are brought into the most intimate relationship with God through The Son of God, Jesus Christ. He has become one with us so that we may become one with Him. He has taken up our flesh so that we can take up His Divinity. Through the sacrament of Baptism, we are incorporated into the Mystical Body of Christ. Our souls are washed clean, the Holy Ghost comes to us, we enter the Holy Catholic Church, and we are mystically united with Jesus Christ. He is our King, but we are more than his subjects. We are His servants, but we are even more than servants. We have become members of His Body. We serve the Mystical Body of Christ as hands or feet serve a physical body.

Kings are anointed with oil, and so are we in Baptism. We are brought into His Kingdom as subjects, servants, and members. An intimacy that goes far beyond physical appearances, brings us into Oneness with Jesus Christ — Oneness with God. The temptation of the devil given to our first parents in the Garden of Paradise — "you will be like God" — is brought into reality through Jesus Christ. God has given us much more. Through unity or oneness with Jesus Christ, we are not gods alongside Him, but we become One with Him or in Him.

We are given a calling far above the rest of creation. We are invited by the King to enter a mysterious union that is beyond our capacity to describe. In marriage two become one. In Jesus Christ we enter a spiritual or mystical marriage — we become, with the Church, the Bride of Christ. While there remain, two persons, their individuality, in a manner, dissolves as two become one. The same or even greater takes place when we are baptized and incorporated into the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ.

Jesus receives us into this Union as if we were the only one. However, He has invited everyone to this intimate Union. All that enter are received with such intimacy and love as if he were the only one. As Jesus is our King, so we are kings with Him. Through the Church and the Sacraments, we advance from His creatures to His servants, to His brothers and sisters, to His brides, to oneness in Him. Our lives are gradually transformed into His Life. He lives in us and through us. We then are able to say with St. Paul, "It is no longer I, but Christ Jesus living within me." (Gal. 2:20)

We are not many kings, but we are one King in Jesus Christ the King. He is the King of kings. It is not our own judgments and rulings that we make, but rather every true judgment is the judgment and ruling of Jesus Christ made through us.

We must also remind ourselves that the Church the Mystical Body of Christ is made up of many members. All the true members of the Church are members of Jesus. He lives in us all (to the extent that we cooperate with Him.) The love, honor, and respect that we owe to Jesus Christ, we likewise owe to all the members of His Mystical Body. With the eyes of faith, we see ourselves entering Him and becoming One with Him. In losing ourselves in Him we become One with Him. The eyes of faith also allow us to see Jesus in all His other members. Not all are at the same level of oneness with Him, nor are all the members of a body equal. We vary in many ways, but He lives in all the true and faithful members of His Mystical Body the Church. We must therefore truly love one another because we are one — Jesus lives in a mystical manner in each of us. It is Him that we love when we love one another.

If we fail in loving each other, we fail in loving Him, we fail in loving God. This mutual love and respect have always been the special marks of the Church. In the early days of the Church, Her members were known by the way they love one another.

Christ is our King, He lives in us to the extent that we die to ourselves and live in Him. Thus. we are transformed into the King — the Son of God. Let us pay Him homage in Heaven, in ourselves (as we behave in a royal manner that is becoming of us), and in loving one another (as He lives in each of us in the Church).

email: father@friarsminor.org Franciscan Benefactor Seraph Subscription Vocations Have you remembered God?