THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Her Doctrine and Morals

Third Sunday after Pentecost

9 June 2024

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The Sunday

Sermon

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Dear Friends,

Today, The Church continues our spiritual education with Jesus' parables of the lost sheep and the lost silver coin (St. Luke 15, 1-10). The Pharisees and scribes were murmuring because Jesus received, welcomed, and ate with publicans and sinners. With these parables, Jesus is teaching them and us that God has come to find and save sinners.

This reminds us of last Sunday's Gospel parable of the Great Supper, in which the "poor, the feeble, the blind, and the lame" were brought in to eat the Great Supper. However, those who were invited first and excused themselves from the feast are eternally barred from the Feast of Heaven. Again, it is the sinners and outcasts that Jesus comes for and invites. It is those who are despised or looked down upon that God lifts.

It is beautiful and amazing that those considered cursed by God or nature with some defect or deficiency are the very ones that God seeks. God is very pleased with their willingness and eagerness to come to Him. But all too often, they appear to be compelled by their circumstances rather than their free will.

It is a higher and more pleasing life when our deficiencies, burdens, and crosses are freely and willingly embraced for the love of God. The crosses are not just accepted with resignation but are taken up and embraced for the love of God. Having physical deficiencies or disabilities, being an outcast is better than being physically whole because God has greater mercy and kindness towards these. It is these that He came to save. It is these that He seeks out. These are often more spiritually blessed than those blessed with physical or bodily gifts. However, when those blessed with bodily health and material success freely give these up to follow Jesus, they are even more pleasing to Him.

Jesus is God. He is perfect in bodily health. He has all wealth and worldly things at His disposal. All spiritual things are His as well. However, Jesus gave up the joys of Heaven to come to this earth to save us. Jesus took up our flesh, lowering (humbling) Himself from His Divinity to become one with His creatures.

It is said that "imitation is the greatest form of flattery." If we genuinely want to please and honor God, the best thing we can do is imitate Him. Though our sacrifices and humbling pale compared to His, God is nonetheless pleased with our desires. The most perfect followers of Jesus are those who daily deny themselves and embrace their cross. We find this life in the clerical and religious state. The religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience most closely resemble the sacrifice of Jesus as He set aside the good things of Heaven to embrace the lowly state of humanity. We see the perfect sacrifice of His Human Will to the Divine Will of His Father — "I came not to do My Will, but to do the Will of Him that sent Me" (St. John 6. 38).

All those who have some disability or for whom sin has heavily weighed them down to the ground need not envy the healthy and robust because Jesus came specifically for them. God offers us something better than bodily integrity, strength, health, wealth, etc. He is offering us eternal life in Heaven.

All who have been given the blessings of this life and this world should be careful not to despise those who have not been blessed in these ways. God might be less pleased when we have less to suffer in this life. Jesus has come for the lost, sinners, and outcasts of this world.

The most foolish in the eyes of the world are those who willingly and deliberately choose to sacrifice themselves and the blessings of this life to become one with the poor, the lowly, and the outcasts. However, to humbly and willingly place ourselves among those whom Jesus came to find and save is the greatest sacrifice and offering that we can make to God.

The best life we can live here on earth is to seek and follow Jesus in our daily activities. We should strive for humility and meekness fostered by an ever-increasing love for God and our fellow men. This daily self-denial and sacrifice is the necessary foundation upon which we are to place our last and final sacrifice as we perfect our following of Jesus by embracing the death God has in store for us. Then, we will be eternally found and saved.

May the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspire, guide, and protect us!