During my freshman year of college at a secular university, way before I considered the Priesthood, I took a course on religion. We studied the history and beliefs of the main world religions: Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. We also looked at what’s called ‘Philosophy of Religion’ – what are the questions religion answers and what role it plays in the story of humankind.
One day, my professor who was a Catholic (and German), asked us a personal question, aware that pretty much all of us were either Catholic or mainstream Protestant:
- Who here believes you go to heaven based entirely on what you do or not do while on earth? Some hands went up, we all felt this was a trick question. He then stated the second option:
- Who here believes that your ability to go to heaven depends entirely on God’s grace? Different hands went up. Most hands however never went up.
That day, at a secular university, I learned something about our Christian faith, that had never been stressed in my Catholic school education. I learned the words of Saint Paul which he wrote to the Ephesians, “by grace you have been saved – by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not from you; it is the gift of God.”
The only reason any of us is able to go to heaven is because of God’s abundant grace which has been given to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus. In Baptism, God has chosen us to be his own children, and he has transformed us with His grace. All that is good in us, is a gift from Him. Everything we do is a response to His personal invitation to follow Him.
We cannot “work our way into heaven” as if it depended entirely on us.
If you see a newborn baby dressed in the cutest dress, do you look at the baby in the eyes and say, “oh, you chose a beautiful dress to wear!” Of course not. You know the baby looks cute thanks to mom who chose the dress and then put it on the baby. No matter how much that baby may try, that baby will never be able to dress herself.
That my friends, is us before God. We are rather helpless, but it is He who chooses us, forgives us, transforms us into new creatures, and offers us eternal life. We cannot fix ourselves, we cannot save ourselves, we need Him.
Consider the well-known story of the Tower of Babel found in the Book of Genesis. The people said, “come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky; and so make a name for ourselves.” The sin of Babel was pride – self-reliance – the belief that we can build our own way into heaven without God’s help. That we are our own gods.
When Mary visited her cousin Elizbeth, she proclaimed some beautiful words recognizing the great things God had done in her life. She says, “God has cast down the might from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.” What does this mean? Some want to portray Mary as a revolutionary, down with the mighty, down with the rich!
The Blessed Mother recognizes that everything she is and has, is all because of God at work in her life. Whenever someone grows mighty or rich, it becomes easy to think he or she has the ability to control everything, or fix everything. We think ourselves invincible. On the other hand, the simpler lives we lead, the less power and authority we have, the more we rely on God’s providence, that He will provide for what we need. The idea of a self-made man, or woman, is a lie, because even our lives are a gift that we receive from our parents, and God. Everything is a gift.
God freely offers us salvation, and we respond to that generous offer. Each day, we respond “yes” or “no” through our choices, our words and actions. We live our lives aware of our need for God, that without him we are nothing. When we do not respond to God’s invitation to follow and go a different way, we ask for forgiveness, and God gives us another try. Salvation is a gift that is given, but can also be rejected by us, and the way we live our lives either helps us attain it or puts it in peril.
“By grace you have been saved – by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not from you; it is the gift of God.” I close asking God to help us recognize Him at work in our lives, and to thank Him for the gift of his love and mercy. On our own, we will fail, but with him, nothing is impossible.
Picture taken from the Public Domain.
Homily 4th Sunday of Lent Year B
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