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For several weeks the Sunday Gospel is the sixth chapter of St. John. Read it in its entirety this week for your prayer time. It is the Biblical root for the Roman Catholic faith and belief about the Holy Eucharist, the Bread of Life. For two thousand years we have held fast to this belief. The Greek Orthodox Church broke off from us around the year 1000 AD, but they too hold fast to this theology about the Eucharist and real presence of Jesus in Holy Communion.
Through this Gospel we are given great insight into the work of God and the work of our enemy, Lucifer. I prefer to use his angelic name.
Did you hear “What is the work of God? Have faith in the One He sent.” What is the work of our enemy? Fifty percent of the time it is “Not to have faith in the One He sent.” The other fifty percent of the time it is “To not believe that ‘he’ (Lucifer) exists.” It is such a subtle twist but very powerful.
Do you understand? Jesus came to give life. Therefore, the enemy comes to bring death. His work is to make us desensitized to death. Did you ever notice how often the theme of death is on so many tee shirts for youth? We have saint’s medals and pictures to remind us of the power of good. We believe it helps us to call on that power and presence. So the other side uses images to call on their power. Do we understand the spiritual conflict that exists?
You were created in the image of God: male and female. Yes, they are equal in the spiritual dimension. So the enemy will twist it to make them “the same.”
If we do not understand the brokenness, which comes from sin, we will never understand the meaning of the crucifixion and the Eucharist. Whenever you come into this church and look at the altar and the crucifix I pray that you see “a unity.” God desires to bring you and me to an Easter resurrection, despite the crosses in this life.
Sin separates us from God. We know the big seven sins are: pride, anger, jealousy, lust, gluttony, avarice, and sloth. We all fight our own demons. Do not make your demons your friends. Lucifer’s favorites are the “spirit of abandonment, betrayal, and rejection.” He calls them “my ministering angels.” Jesus came to bring life, not judgment. His Hebrew name is Satan, because in that language the name means “accuser.” He accuses us before Father God.
The fruit of sin is guilt. “Guilt is good.” It shows we have a conscious. Guilt leads us to admit that we did wrong. The perversion of guilt is shame. That comes from the enemy. He loves to confuse us between the two so that “guilt and shame” become intertwined roots” beneath the tree that represents our life. What are the three common ways we respond to sin, shame and guilt?
The first; is to cover over our shame and guilt by minimizing our sin. The soul says to itself, “So many others don’t go to church, why should I? Every one else is living together. Every one else lies. Every one else cheats, and is greedy. Just watch the evening news Father. You’re not living in the true world.”
This method is unlivable. Why? We cannot break the laws of nature or the spiritual laws of purity, unselfishness, goodness and love, without being broken. The enemy loves to seduce us by thinking that when we begin to “break” these natural laws we are “really getting ahead.” In reality, if we break them, they will “break us.”
The second; is that we cover over our guilt and sin with pride. Often we do this by “posturing.” For my kids, I did this as the youngest of eight children. When I got in trouble I blamed it on my older sister or older brother. We blame others for our problems. We start our “confession” by saying what “the other person did wrong.”
This method is unjustifiable. My parents did not “fall for it.” Neither will Father God.
The third; is that we cover over our guilt and sin with fear. She was seventeen years old in her Catholic School and they finally got a priest chaplain. He offered the students times to meet with him. She walked in and began to talk about her friend who was suicidal. She could not face life anymore. After listening at length, the priest finally said, “I don’t think you are talking about a friend. I have to ask you if you are really talking about your self?” She broke down in tears. He apologized for hurting her feelings but explained that if this was going to be fruitful they needed to be totally honest with each other. She explained that she had been paternally molested since the age of eight. She desperately feared that if she told the truth the police would come and break up her family. Her mother would hate her. Her siblings would blame her for destroying her family. She saw herself as being “responsible for the break up of her family.”
The priest gave her the freedom she needed to tell the truth. Lucifer loves to use this method the most to cover over sin and guilt (and shame). This method is unbearable.
What is the fourth option? It is to take it to the cross. This is what you do every time you go to confession. This is extremely difficult for Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims to understand the sacrifice of the cross and sacrifice of the Eucharist.
Hindus believe that we are always reincarnated and each time we pay for our sin. Buddhists believe that we are always reincarnated and each time we strive to reach a higher karma or enlightenment that pays for our sin and brings us to a better conscious. Muslims are not insured salvation unless they die as a martyr for the faith.
It was a Hindu who explained to a priest that he finally came to understand what he was teaching about the sacrifice of the cross and the sacrifice of the Eucharist. He explained that he could not live with his shame and confessed to his wife of many years that he had betrayed her. She wept for weeks and months. She came to her husband, held his hands, looked into his eyes and said, “I pledged my love to you. I will not let this sin destroy that love. I still love you and want us to work together to rebuild our marriage.” The husband explained that by his wife’s act of sacrificial love he understood the teaching of Jesus’ sacrificial love.
Put the shoe on the other foot. “Jesus is the bridegroom, we are the bride.” When we come to the cross He is there to say, “I know how you have betrayed Me. I know all the times your love has been weak and half hearted.” He stands at the altar and says to us, “I know how you have neglected My Love and betrayed Me. I still love you and want to be with you. I still want to share My Life with you.”
When we better understand the brokenness of sin, guilt and shame, how we minimize it, cover them with pride, or fear, or take it to the cross; we better understand the sacrifice of the cross and the sacrifice of the Eucharist.