Sunday, June 1, 2008

Homily, June 1, 2008

Like a city requiring its inhabitants to build their houses up to a certain code, and upgrade older houses to meet a certain code,

Just as cities that are in an earthquake-prone area are required to meet certain building codes that will make them more resistent should an earthquake of a certain magnitude strike,

so/similarly today Our Lord today is setting the required code for Entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven.

We should bring our lives up to a code -- and that Code is: Listening and acting upon Our Lord's word: “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.”

Believe in Our Lord's Word, but not living by it, would be knowing the code demands, but choosing to cut corners.

A wise man builds to meet the building code. It may be more expensive but, they do. A fool takes the easiest way out of the code demands.

The same is true for the Word of God demands. God's word is like a building code for a building in heaven.

Story:

A rich man had a dream in which he died and went to heaven. St. Peter escorted him down a love memory lane on which each house was magnificent.

The rich man saw one house that was particularly beautiful. “That,” said Peter, “is the house of one of your servants.”

“Well!” said the man smiling. “If my servant has a building like that, then I'm really looking forward to seeing my own magnificent mansion.”

Soon, they came to a very small unpaved street where the houses were tiny.

“You will live in that hut,” said Peter, pointing his finger. “Me?” bargained the man. “Live in tht hovel?” roared the man in great anger.

“This is the best we can do for you,” explained St. Peter. “You must understand that we only build a home up here with the kind of material you send ahead while you are still on earth.”

“Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in Heaven.”

Our Lord tells us that listening to his words is not enough. Listening is not the End in and of itself.

Listening to Our Lord's Word is just the beginning. We must act on them. That's the ultimate purpose and goal.

Dogmas are important. But just reciting dogmas is not sufficient to build a lasting home for one's eternity (eternal existence). Merely listening to the Word of God without acting on it is like carrying an unlit lamp.

It is like an Army Base with a radar but not using it to detect attacking enemies. A ship with a compass but not using it to find direction.

EXAMPLE OF SATAN:

Even Satan can recide the Scriptures verbatim. Even he can quote verses. But the only thing he cannot do is abide by those Biblical quotes.

Even he knows Jesus Christ: “We know who you are, you are the Son of the Living Most High God.”

Even Moses had a similar Eternal Life Code : Obeying the Commandments. “I set before you here, this day, a blessing and a curse: a blessing for obeying the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin on you today.”

“... a curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord.”

CONVERSELY: THE REVERSE IS TRUE

Strangely enough, Acting on the Word of God alone is, in and of itself, not enough/sufficient either.

“Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?” And He will say, “I never knew you.”

Having commandments without keeping/obeying them is like wearing a wrist watch for decoration purposes, not for directing one's life as to when to go to bed, when to wake up and when to eat.

It's like keeping the law without the spirit of the law. It's like obeying a command out of coersion.

a) God isn't impressed by that kind of worship or service. Doing it out of duty instead of out of love for the commander.

b) This is also to rule out happenstance goodness.

Goodness that has no basis as to why be good. This to rule out people claiming, “I am a good person. I never killed anybody, so I don't need that church. What is lacking in me.”

c) This is to rule out the modern claim that society can fare just fine without God's name being pronounced in the Courtrooms, in the schools.

Such a lifestyle / such a society is built on a quicksand, on a very precarious ground. Such a lifestyle / such a society is like a building walls without a foundation. Such a civilization is built like a Tower of Babel. It's built purely upon Quicksand of Pure and Raw Human Enterprice / and Efforts. No Divine Involvment.

Our Lord is saying, Good Works without the Word of God are Good for Nothing. Good for Goodness' Sake leads to nowhere. If that's the case, one can equally be bad, if one so chooses and it will still be just fine.

SOLUTION:

We got to be good because Our Lord says so in His Word, because He is the Lord, our God. That's the goodness that leads to Eternal Entrance into Heaven. That's the obedience that Moses says is a Blessing.

Any other one is morality/moral goodness by accident. “I didn't mean to be good.” Or it may be goodness for some ulterior motive, for secondary gain. That's the goodness that Our Lord says, he will say, “Who? Go away. I don't know you. You were good for your own sake.”

LESSON:

Morality built purely on human wisdom and human enterprize or instincts is dangerous and precarious as quicksand is.

St. Paul in the 2^nd Reading says “all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God.”

Whether Gentile or Jew all humans have sinned and cannot bring themselves up to moral goodness.

It is only in believing in Our Lord Jesus Christ that the righteousness of God can be manifested in the world. It is totally not any result of some human enterprice.

“For there is no distinction; all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus.”

Humans cannot boast that they have effected any of their uprightness through their own efforts, for it is impossible without faith.

That's what Our Lord, the New Moses on the Sermon on the Mount, in the Gospel says makes the difference between the Wise man and the Fool.

Let's align what we believe and profess with what we do so that they are square.

This is what establishes us on Solid Ground and opens the Entrance to Heaven for us. One alone doesn't cut it.