The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

Publicans and sinners came to Jesus. Each and everyone of us are sinners and it is required of us to come to Jesus. It is not enough for us to only believe. Faith without works is dead. Action on our part is essential.

Mankind, since the fall, has been immersed in the filth of sin. We had no hope of ever extracting ourselves from this quagmire. All our efforts are ineffective and futile. Filled with love and mercy for His creatures, God sent His Son to lift us up from this morass. God did not meet us half-way. He came all the way to us, because we could not make the slightest movement to Him. This, however, does not indicate that nothing is necessary on our part. It is necessary that we cooperate with Him in extracting ourselves. God has given us a free will and He honors that free will even if we use it to turn against Him. He will not force us to be saved. He has redeemed (paid the price of our sins) without our help, but He cannot save us (lift our souls up into Heaven) without our cooperation. It is necessary for us to do our part and put forth our effort to complete the distance that still separates us from Him. We must come to Jesus.

Jesus is God and we are vile sinners. There is an infinite distance between us. When He became Man, He closed that infinite gap and put salvation within our reach. He has entered into this sinful world — not to be contaminated by it, but to purify and sanctify it. He enters into the soiled souls of sinners, not to become defiled but to cleanse. However, He can only do this with our consent and help. The impossibility is lifted and the possibility is put within our grasp and capabilities.

The Jews failed to understand that Jesus cannot become defiled, but rather He cleanses all defilement that comes into contact with Him. Jesus has left the beauty, peace, and rest of His Home in Heaven, to rescue us. With the woman troubled with the issue of blood, we only need to reach out and touch the tassel of His garment and we will be healed. It is not difficult nor is it a great distance that we must traverse, but it is a work that we must undertake if we are to be restored to the station that God has created us to occupy in Eternity.

Today's parables instruct us in the solicitude of God for our salvation. We are to see the love and solicitude of the Shepherd for His sheep. They belong within the fold, and He will not rest until they are restored or are eternally lost in Hell. We are His and we belong to Him and with Him, and can only find true life in Him. The Shepherd requires the lost sheep to stop and allow Him to approach and pick him up. The sheep must not run away, or kick or resist the efforts of the Shepherd. He must cooperate and allow the Shepherd to do all that is necessary for his own good. If we resist Him to the end of our days here on earth, then we will be lost for all of eternity.

We are also to consider that we are as precious coins belonging to God. We are stamped with His image and likeness. ("Let us make man in our image and likeness.") When one of the coins is lost, it is as if a part of God is lost. Jesus (the Light of the World) came and illuminated this world shining His light upon us — seeking that which rightfully belongs to Him. We have become filthy and defiled as a coin that has fallen to the ground and soon becomes corrupted and dirty. There is, however, deep under all that the image and likeness of God. The Light of God shining upon the coin allows us to see once again His image. He has taken up a broom and swept away the dirt in search of us. This is where He find us — in the dirt. Once the dirt of this world is swept away this life resembles more closely the life that we have been called to live. The dirt in the house is swept out, now, all that remains is for the found coin to be restored to its rightful beauty and luster. The graces and sacraments that He has given us wash the filth of sin away, clarifying and increasing — not only the image of God within us, but also the very life of God within us.

He has come for us, now, we must go to Him. We must love Him more than we love ourselves, more than we love this world, more than we love sin. He desires to take us back to His Home in Heaven — back to His Heavenly Flock where we belong. His hand is stretched out to us. May we take His hand and never let go.

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