In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.
Today's epistle and gospel are very instructive
for us, but before we get into that, we should
mention that this is also an important Saints'
Day. And kids, who is Jesus' grandma? Anna. That's
right. Joachim and Anna were Mary's parents and
Jesus' grandparents. And today we celebrate what's
called the repose of Anna. In other words, this
is the day that Mary's mother completed her earthly
life. And it is a tradition in the church that
a saint's day is not the saint's birthday. in
this world, but the saint's birthday in eternity,
because that is what the irony of death is. It's
not an end to life. It's a translation from one
form of existence into a much richer and deeper
and joyous form of life. So this is to repose
the entrance into eternal life of Saint Anna,
Mary's mother and Jesus' grandmother. And of
course, those names are familiar because you
hear them mentioned at the dismissal prayer through
the prayers of the holy ancestors of God, Joy,
Kim, and Anna. Today's gospel, though, is certainly
a strange one. Among many priests, it's sort
of a tradition to... when they're talking with
the priest, either right before this Sunday or
right after this Sunday, they'll say, oh, we
have swine Sunday or pig Sunday coming up. What
are you going to say about that? Or what did
you say about pig Sunday last week? And to some
people, it might seem that there's very little
story or purpose in here. But quite to the contrary,
what this event illustrates is how unnatural,
how unnatural sin and evil are for human beings.
The man who is possessed by evil, by demons,
when he was cured by Jesus and the demons were
driven out, They asked Jesus to send them somewhere
else into the herd of swine. And when that happened,
it drove those pigs crazy. They became suicidal.
They rushed off a steep bank and drowned themselves.
So to be possessed by evil, by evil spirits,
is that illustrates how unnatural that is. Pigs
couldn't stand it, drove them crazy. But human
beings, ironically, we can be possessed by evil
and sin and act as if it's just sort of normal
form of behavior. I think this is illustrated
in our contemporary society because there's been
such a... in some quarters, an abandonment of
traditional Judeo -Christian morality, behavior,
especially between man and woman and the sacredness
of marriage. And in addition to this, how natural
it seems for people to say that abortion is a
morally neutral. There's no moral consideration.
It's just something you can do if it's convenient
or not. And the idea that this is actually the
killing and the murder of an unborn human being,
a baby, in the protectiveness of the womb, that
for some people it just doesn't hit home to them.
that our society and some people can condone
these departures from the Ten Commandments with
sexual immorality and with abortion. So it's
an opportunity for us to pray that the understanding
of the Ten Commandments and traditional Judeo
-Christian morality, which... codifies normal,
natural human behavior. Even societies that did
not have the benefit of the Ten Commandments
and divine revelation knew they had a glimpse
of what proper human conduct is about. So that
it brings us also to a consideration of what
is natural. Now, I'm sure that you've heard the
expression, supernatural life. That if you pray
and come into communion with God, it's supernatural
life. But there's a validity in looking at it
that way. But I think a more authentic and a
more ancient way of looking at this is that to
be in communion with God, is natural. It's not
supernatural. God created man and woman to be
in communion with God. That is what is natural
for us, to be out of communion with God, to be
controlled by sin and evil, as this unfortunate
man was in today's gospel. This is unnatural.
So it's two different ways of looking at one
reality. The preferable one, I believe, which
is in patristic tradition fundamentally, that
it's natural for us to be in communion with God.
To be out of communion with God is inhuman. God
created our first parents to be in communion
with him. That is what is natural for us. And
Jesus came into the world not to offer us so
much supernatural life or supernatural relationship
with God, but rather to restore us to what is
authentically human, authentically natural for
us, to be in love with God, to be in communion
with God. In line with this, there's one verse
in today's epistle that I've always thought really
encapsulates the gospel. It encapsulates the
Christian message. I don't know if you really
caught it, but I'm sure when I repeat it, you'll
say, oh yeah. St. Paul says near the end of his
epistle to the Romans, He says, if you confess
with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you
believe in your heart that God raised him from
the dead, you will be saved. That, my friends,
is the Christian message. That is the gospel
right there. This was also really the earliest
profession of faith. When someone turned to Jesus,
all they had to do was say, Jesus is Lord, make
that affirmation, and that was sufficient to
be baptized. Of course, there were instructions
that were carried on as well. But that's the
fundamental turning point of a human being, to
confess with our mouth, Jesus is Lord. and also
to believe firmly in our heart what is the goal
of our human life, to have eternal life, life
in communion with God, and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead, you will be
saved. So the belief in Jesus as Lord, not just
an earthly Lord, but the heavenly divine Lord,
of the universe, that Jesus is Lord, and he's
the Lord of my life. And to believe that he has
given us a pathway from this world into eternity,
this is salvation. And as I said at the very
beginning, one of the many saints who have shown
us the way after the Lord Jesus himself with
his resurrection. that they have left this world
and gone into eternal life and eternal happiness,
which was their goal and is our goal. So let
us live as naturally as possible in this world,
being in communion with God, rejecting everything
possible that is sinful and unnatural to us.
to live an authentic human life of communion
with God. Tertullian said, in conclusion, Tertullian
has a very famous, he was a, he lived about,
flourished about the year 200, theologian in
North Africa. He referred to human beings as,
that the human soul, he says, anima naturaliter,
Christiana. The human soul is naturally Christian.
So Christianity, belief in Jesus, belief in his
resurrection from the dead, is our restoration
to natural life in preparation for the life to
come. Amen.