And When I am Lifted up

 

"And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all men to myself," says Christ (Jn. 12:32). I found this helpful, by Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange OP:

The power upon which rests the spiritual life of all souls striving to be freed from evil and raised up to God is the redemptive action of Christ, his ever active and efficacious love directed to the Father and to us. He himself told us: As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, but must remain part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. The branches can live only if they are united to the vine and receive the sap from it. Come to me, all of you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest—that is, burdened under the weight of your faults and sufferings. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all men to myself.

Life itself teaches us that the strength of a soul in the midst of trial and temptations comes from its practical and experiential consciousness of the infinite value of Redemption, of the omnipotent efficacy of Christ’s death on the cross...

According to the definition of the Church, the redemptive act of Christ has an infinite value and efficacy. It makes satisfaction for any guilt whatsoever, repairs fully any offense against God, even though its gravity is infinite. It satisfies for all the sins of men, and still more. It compensates for all the rebellions against God, all the apostasies, all the acts of despair and presumption, all the feelings of hatred, and all kinds of crime. It merits all graces for even the most degraded souls, provided they are not stubbornly fixed in evil. It is impossible to think of a limit to the efficacy of the redemptive act.

 

The redemptive act of Christ has an infinite value and efficacy. Amen to that.

Happy St. Pat's,

LSP

Your God Is The Belly

Today's Epistle warns of "enemies of the cross," and who are these enemies? People whose "God is the belly," bringing to mind someone gorging themselves at a restaurant or banquet. 

It's an unpleasant image but a good one, drawing our attention to the substance of the thing, worshiping the cravings and appetite of the empty cavity of our gut. What a hungry and jealous god. Euripides puts it well in the mouth of the splendidly wicked one-eyed monster, Cyclops:

Wealth, manikin, (Odysseus) is the god for the wise; all else is mere vaunting and fine words... I shudder not at Zeus’s thunder, nor know I wherein Zeus is a mightier god than I... The earth perforce, whether she like it or not, produces grass and fattens my flocks, which I sacrifice to no one save myself and this belly, the greatest of deities; but to the gods, not I! For surely to eat and drink one’s fill from day to day and give oneself no grief at all, this is the king of gods...

The Apostle describes this in terms of "flesh," listing its attributes in Galatians, and for sure, it's an attitude and state of mind, body and spirit which ends in destruction, being diametrically opposed to the selfless love of God evidenced on the Cross. 

Long story short, you can't worship your belly and God at the same time and with St. Paul, those who do, "glory in their shame." Go on, watch a Pride Parade on Youtube and dare to disagree. On second thoughts don't, it'll ruin your Sunday, but you get the point.

So we've i.d.'d the enemy, well done, and if we're honest we'll admit it's something very like the religion of our age. Drive into any one of our cities and behold the square miles of strip malls and their accompanying advertising, signs lifted up like the plastic standards of a conquering army, all of them telling you to gorge yourself.

Hideous, isn't it, and you don't need a degree in moral theology to sense it. But here's a question for all you Christians out there, people who go to church every Sunday. 

Do you walk the way of the cross, of sacrificial love, such that Christ will recognize you as his disciple or are you merrily wandering along the broad way, the way of the flesh that leads to perdition? Serious question with serious consequences.

Strive to enter by the narrow gate. 

End of sermon,

LSP