Christmas 2006 Morning Mass. Total salvation
Jesus said to the messengers from John the Baptist: go and tell John what you see and hear – the deaf hear, the dumb speak, the blind have their sight restored etc
Signs of salvation. Are you the one to come? Jesus answers indirectly. Well, what does it look like?
Are these the signs of some ordinary person or does it look to you like salvation has been unleashed?
This was just the beginning. Restoring sight to a blind person is certainly a great thing, but that is just good for one person in one place. Jesus’ full plan was much grander than that.
He came to heal the whole person, going right to the root cause of the problem. And that is not that you can’t see or can’t walk, troublesome as that might be.
The root problem is sin, alienation from God. He came to heal that problem by reconciling us with God.
So that in our wounded humanity we would now be once more filled with the life of grace, would once more share in divine life.
This is a much more valuable healing than having sight restored. After all, if I was blind and then I could see – I would be happy for a while but then would be the same as everyone else – looking for meaning. I can see, but so what?
No, we need to be set right at the very deepest level of our being, and this means to be right with God, to receive His forgiveness and have His life in us.
Knowing who we are, where we are from, and where we are going.
This is a challenging level of healing because it might be further than we want to go.
We might be happy just to have our aches and pains removed and then left to live as before.
The Jews did not want to be saved beyond certain political changes – get rid of the Romans. Otherwise leave things be. Those who crucified Our Lord thought He was asking too much (or offering too much).
Thus it has been in every generation since. Help me, Lord, and then back off, please.
If we recognize Him for what He is, and what He wants, we will then both value His coming AND cooperate with it.
The Last Gospel is the main Gospel in this Mass – brought to a more prominent position.
He came to His own and His own did not receive Him.
They were so busy worrying about their aches and pains they did not see what was being offered to them.
To understand the scope of the salvation which is offered is a necessary part of receiving it. Many sell Christ short in all sorts of ways – just free bread, physical comfort, ticket to heaven, nice non-threatening religion, ethical teacher, another religion to go with all the others… but He is so much more and will never be understood unless given centre stage.
We must see further. We read that Gospel so often to remind ourselves that His own should have received Him.
And just in case we haven’t been receiving Him we can always start now.
If we do receive Him His salvation will take deeper hold in us and gradually extend to the whole world – which was always His plan. (also alluded to in the Last Gospel).
He came for the whole world but still it has not happened.
He needs people like us to receive Him so that progress can be made.
Enjoy your Christmas but don’t reduce it to just a nice day with family and friends. It is the key to the renewal of the whole world. Christmas is about Christ!
