The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today we begin the Ecclesiastical year by focusing on the goal or destination before us. We are preparing to celebrate the Birth of Jesus and the beginning of our soul's salvation, but we are looking forward to the Second Coming of Jesus and the salvation of our bodies and the physical world.

Concerning the prophecies foretelling the end of the world and the signs preceding it, St. Augustine said: "I consider that these things should be better understood in the Church, lest the Lord Jesus may appear to be foretelling, as extraordinary events which shall foretell His Coming, things which have happened in this world even before His First Coming, so that we may not be laughed at by those who have read of even more extraordinary events in the story of mankind. For the Church is the sun and the moon and the stars, to whom it was said: Fair as the moon, bright as the sun (Cant. 6. 9.), and she then shall not be seen, as her persecutors rage against her without measure."

St. Ambrose also speaks in this vein. "Many apostatizing from Christianity, the brightness of the faith will be dimmed by this cloud of apostasy: since the heavenly Sun grows dim or shines in splendor according to my faith. And as in its monthly eclipse, the moon, by reason of the earth coming between it and the sun, disappears from view, so likewise the holy Church, when the vices of the flesh stand in the way of the celestial light, can no longer borrow the splendor of His divine light from the Sun of Christ. And in the persecutions, it was invariably the love of this life that stood in the path of the Divine Sun. Also the stars, that is, men surrounded by the praise of their fellow Christians, shall fall, as the bitterness of persecution mounts up; which must, however, come to pass, until the number of the faithful is made up; for so the good are proved and the weak made known."

It appears that we are to see the spiritual or supernatural realm imposing itself upon the physical realm we are familiar with. As false religions multiply, we see ever-increasing material lights shining across this world. The physical lights of the sun, moon, and stars are temporary lights that must give way to the spiritual light of Jesus Christ. The human (demonic) lights of wisdom, understanding, science, and religion are false lights or material lights that will fall or become extinguished by the True Light of Jesus.

We, no doubt, see many material or physical aberrations in nature and the social life of humanity. However, what should concern us more is the spiritual aberrations in faith and religion. The material evils that we perceive with our bodily senses are the effects of spiritual sins that are hidden from the eyes of our bodies and can only be seen with our souls' eyes when God's grace aids them. Spiritual good or evil precedes material good or evil. Sin begins in the heart and then manifests in our words and actions. Virtue begins in our hearts and then manifests in our words and actions. We too often incorrectly think that sin starts in physical activities and then corrupts the heart and soul.

The Birth of Jesus was the beginning of the transformation of our souls. We prepare during Advent by looking into our souls and preparing a place for Jesus to come and stay with us spiritually. The Child Jesus' hidden life is analogous to our souls' interior life.

The Second Coming of Jesus will transform our bodies and the physical world. The souls that have been transformed by God and have lived the spiritual life of Light while surrounded by the darkness of sin and vice in this world will find a renewed physical body to match the glory in their souls. The souls that have lived in the darkness of sin and vice will discover their bodies brought forth in eternal suffering, darkness, and misery.

The physical or material world that rejected Jesus when He came to us will be destroyed, and a new or renewed world will take its place. Jesus came and was rejected by the greatest part of this world. As St. John says: "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." If we follow Jesus spiritually, we will find that this world is not our home. The world is in opposition to Jesus and all His faithful followers.

As our souls are transformed in the Light and grace of God, our bodies begin to manifest the Life of Christ within us, and we become increasingly alienated from society and this world. We must not fear this but rather welcome it as a blessing that enables us to follow Jesus even more closely than before. The future holds a great reward for us both physically and spiritually if we begin now to allow Jesus to enter in and transform our souls so that when He returns the Second time, He will be able to raise our bodies to eternal glory with Him in Paradise.

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