Sunday, July 30, 2017

Homily


Good morning children of the Lord our God. Today, you heard that those who are justified in Jesus will be glorified. As such, it is logical to conclude that those who are not justified, they shall not be glorified.

Since such is the case, there is an urgent need for all to be justified. Some of you may ask, "What does it means to be justified?" To be justified means to be made right in the eyes of God, to be declared free of sin. It means being in a perfect state of holiness as Adam was when God first created him. That is the condition that is necessary to be glorified by God.

Some of you may be asking yourselves how this is possible. Other may think that this is an impossibility. Let us review what the Holy Bible teaches regarding justification. The Holy Bible teaches that there are two phases to being justified in Christ, justification during the Sacrament of Baptism and justification after the Sacrament of Baptism. Both are absolutely necessary to inherit the Kingdom of God, to qualify as children of God and to be glorified.

My brothers and sisters, you may have heard it said by some that because they live a good life, they are made righteous, being justified in Christ. I tell you, no one is justified by their own efforts of living a good life. "For it is not the hearers of the (spiritual) law who are righteous in God's sight, but the doers of the (spiritual) law who will be justified." [Rom. 2:13]

You may have heard it said that one is justified by faith in Jesus. I tell you, no one is justified by faith in Jesus alone. A person is justified by (spiritual) works, over and above faith. [Jas. 2:24]

You may have heard it said that one is justified by Baptism alone. I tell you, no one is justified through the Sacrament of Baptism alone. Through Baptism, Christ passed over the sins that were previously committed, [Rom. 3:25] including all traces of the Original Sin. Jesus said that unless one is born again of water and Spirit from above, He will not see the Kingdom of God. [Jn. 3:5] Therefore, if none of the previously mentioned are made righteous by Christ, none of them will be justified by Christ before the Heavenly Father.

Some may claim that Jesus passed over the sins that were previously committed "to prove at the present time that He Himself is righteous and that He justifies the one who has faith in Him." [Rom. 3:26] Therefore, salvation is by faith alone. My brothers and sisters, I just finished reading the passage of Saint James where it states that one is justified by (spiritual) works and not by faith alone.

Permit me to elaborate on this subject. Allow me to explain how one is truly justified in Christ. By the grace of God, we were all called to accept Jesus in living faith so we may receive our salvation. Through sincere repentance of our past sins, we received Jesus in our hearts. Following this, we joined the holy Catholic Church that was instituted by Jesus Christ Himself. We received the Sacrament of Baptism that admitted us into the Body of Christ, blessing us with the free gift of the new creation. Then we received the Sacrament of Reconciliation to maintain our righteousness in the eyes of God.

By the grace of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, our faith in Jesus Christ and the Sacrament of Baptism, we received a new heart and spirit that were free of all the past sins that we had committed, including all the traces of the original sin. And to help our new heart and spirit, we were born again of the Spirit, [Jn. 3:5] having received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to guide us in the Christian path. That new creation within us is our only assurance of the blessed hope of eternal life.

But that is not the end of the spiritual road. That was just the beginning of the road, the beginning of our new walk in Christ as a new creature. Now, we are required to live our faith. We must maintain our righteousness in the eyes of God. A Christian can only have a living faith when it flows like streams of water, when it shines as a light. As a new creation, a child of God, we must love God above all others and above all our worldly goods. We must love our neighbour as we love ourselves. And, we must receive the Sacraments of the Holy Catholic Church on an ongoing basis.

Through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, after having received the Sacrament of Baptism, we are sanctified by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with His Blood [1 Pet. 1:2] so our righteousness may be maintained before God. But even all this is not enough. We must still receive the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist for Christ said that the bread, the Holy Eucharist, is His Body. He is the Living Bread. Without the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, we will surely die. (To surely die is to experience spiritual death, eternal damnation.) We must receive the Holy Eucharist on a regular basis to have the Living Bread within us to ensure our eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

Some may wonder what all of this has to do with today's readings. My brothers and sisters, the kingdom of heaven is like a hidden treasure. Not everybody knows the truth and understands the hidden messages of Jesus. Some have eyes but they do not see. They have ears but they do not hear. They only see and hear what they want to see and hear.

During today's First Reading from the First Book of Kings, we heard how the Lord God rewarded Solomon for his unselfish desire to be righteous before the people as their King. God has not changed! He continues to bless those who live an unselfish Christian life, striving towards meeting the physical and spiritual needs of others. 

During the Second Reading from the Letter of Paul to the Romans, we heard how God knew before creation which one of us would respond to His grace through our own free will. He knew beforehand which ones of us would live our Christian faith in accordance with the teachings of Jesus, shining in Divine love so we may inherit the Kingdom of God. If we are among the humble and obedient servants of God, those that He foreknew, then we are among those who have been called to be justified. We are among those who will be glorified in Jesus Christ.

There are some who have been called but who have not answered their callings as of yet. They have yet to be justified and glorified. Today's Gospel is meant to open their eyes so they will respond to the grace of God.

The kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that is hidden in a field that someone found and hid. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all what he has and buys that field. That treasure is what I have just finished explaining to you during the last ten minutes. Through I, a minister of the Word of God, a servant of the Lord, Jesus is explaining to you what you must do to obtain your eternal glory. Having found this treasure, you are called to embrace it by rejecting your worldly ways.

The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind. When it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

When the day comes for us to appear before the Almighty and Righteous Lord, there will be no second chance. There will be no coming back on earth to start all over again to correct the wrongs that we may have done. That will be it! Our free will, our thoughts, our words, our actions, all will be judged, determining if we will be among the good fish or the bad ones that were drawn ashore from the net.

My brothers and sisters, my greatest desire is to see that each and every one of you is justified so you may all be glorified as one in Christ. Today, I call upon those of you who have not done so yet, to respond to the grace of God by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that through the embracing of your calling, my joy may be complete in His Most Holy Name, in the Name of He for who I speak today.

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