Sunday, June 21, 2008

Homily, Saturday, June 21, 2008

First, let us notice the biblical basis for our doctrine of Original Sin, which is actually our first parents' Personal Sin. It's not our personal sin but theirs; however it affected all humanity that followed them. It could never be the same. When a tree is bad it produces equally bad fruits.

“Through one man, sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned.” “...for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world....”

“But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the tresspass of Adam.”

That's where that difference between our Original Sin and our Personal Sin is. We suffer the consequences of Adam's sin even though we did not sin after the pattern of his own tresspass -- even though it's his personal sin but not ours. In other words even though we are not responsible for his actions, we suffer the same consequence, the same fate.

“Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.”

Our Lord calls us to be bold witnesses of Him before men (in the world).

That naturally engenders some element of fear within us. It requires a special courage to be able to witness to the world. It required the Prophet Jeremiah a special courage to be able to single handedly stand up to his country and prophesy. He was dabbed a “Prophet of Doom and Gloom,” and so was very unpopular and despised. He lived under death threats. They even threw him into a dry well.

What Our Lord was asking his Apostles (disciples) was a hard job. He first helped them to develop a right thinking. They should know that God is watching every step and every move. Nothing happens ourside his sight, not even the apparent insignificant thing as a sparrow falling down or a hair on your head dropping every morning when you comb it. These insignificant creatures are seen by God and are important to him. We don't even worry when our hair falls off every morning. We don't even bother to count the loss. But Jesus tells us God does count everyone of our hairs on our head.

With so much All-Knowing God, so much Attention-to-Details God, nothing can escape his eye over us. That's how caring and careful God is with us. Nothing will ever happen to us without his notice.

So, nothing people will ever do to us that will escape his notice. We are too much important for him to miss. He doesn't miss what happens to little insignificant creatures, in no way will He miss what happens to us.

That is enough to dispell and allay any fears of ever standing up for him in the world.

He further adds that in actual fact the world is not worth our fear. Only God our Father is worth our fear. Because all the world can do is destroy the body, no more. That's is temporal destruction. That's nothing when you know that God has an unblinking eye towards the little things that happen to us, and He can reverse any injustice done unto us.

The fear we must be concerned about is that of Eternal damnation where not just the body dies but my whole person, my whole being, body and soul, with nothing spaired.

Fear of this world or other people is a misappropriated fear, in fact. To God alone is our Fear due.

With that mindset, there is no reason why we can't acknowledge him, witness Him.

APPLICATION:

Every place in the world is in need of Christian witnessing(es). It is in this world that we have to stand up and be counted. In Christianity there is no place for Secret Admireors. We have to give public witness to our Christian faith.

In some countries to do this means life-sentence. It was a life sentence very early on during the first 400 hundred years of Christianity. Christians were brutally massacred like flies. Our times are better than those martyrs times.

It was the same for all the True Prophets in the OT. In the countries where there is no life danger, there is still need for witnessing to Our Lord's truth because of the Erosion of Christian and moral values.

Witnessing in these countries faces different kind of fear:

Fear of what will people think of me or say about me.

Fear of losing our ego.

Fear not of opposition or hostility, as much as of “a deadly indifference.”

Fear of being unpopular.

This kind of fear can paralyze us, and make us so timid that we settle for blending in with the world and become “of the world”.

The Lord says, “Whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”

None of the Saints that we know of blended in. Prophet Jeremiah and indeed all prophets did not blend in. They swam up stream and against the current.

ASSURANCE:

“FEAR NO ONE” “Do not be afraid...”

God who watches the life and death of even the least valuable/significant creatures, such as sparrows or hairs of our heads, watches over our life and death.

Examples:

Areas of difficulty are abortion and “contraception” better called “artificial birth control”. Our Archbishop is taking the lead witnessing for Christ in this regard.

Inconsistency of the Law of Indecency: Media Propagating Indecent exposure (Pornography):

Story about Fear:

Fear is a good thing to warn us to move cautiously and not recklessly.

On the other hand, fear can be a crippling thing, in the face of doing good.

In that case, FEAR becomes the initials for “False Estimate About Reality.

Once upon a time there was this mouse that had a crippling fear of cats. It could not go foraging for fear that it might encounter a cat. So, fellow rats decided they should bring it to a magician to do something about this problem. The magician took pity on the little mouse, and so turned it into a cat. Then the mouse-cat developed the crippling fear of dogs. It couldn't go out for fear it might run into (encounter) with dogs. So, the magician decided he was going to turn the little mouse-cat into a dog. So, the mouse dog developed the fear of wolves. It wouldn't go hunting for fear it might encounter packs of wolves. Then the magician turned it into a wolf. Then the mouse-wolf became afraid of hunters. At this point the magician gave up. He turned it back into a little mouse, saying, “Nothing I do for you is going to be of any help because you have the heart of a mouse.”

Fear can cripple or paralyze us into denying Our Lord like Peter. “Jesus Who?”, he said. Fear can make us put our foot in our mouths. Fear can make us put our tongues in our cheeks. Fear can make us shift our allegiances. Fear can makes us Christians of convinience. As long as the Emperor loves me.

Bishop Romero did not. St. Thomas More did not. Archbishop Nauman is not.

What about you?

Prayer: To the God whose love is kind, and whose loving and caring eye never blinks, we raise our hearts in prayer.

Conclusion:

Heavenly Father, grant us in our tasks your help in all our doubts, your guidance, in all our weaknesses, your strength, in all our dangers, your protection, and in all our sorrows, your consolation. We make our prayer through Christ Our Lord.