WEBVTT 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:04.379 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 00:00:04.379 --> 00:00:08.140 of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ. 00:00:10.679 --> 00:00:15.460 Today's epistle and gospel are very instructive 00:00:15.460 --> 00:00:19.960 for us, but before we get into that, we should 00:00:19.960 --> 00:00:22.800 mention that this is also an important Saints' 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:31.449 Day. And kids, who is Jesus' grandma? Anna. That's 00:00:31.449 --> 00:00:36.409 right. Joachim and Anna were Mary's parents and 00:00:36.409 --> 00:00:42.429 Jesus' grandparents. And today we celebrate what's 00:00:42.429 --> 00:00:46.770 called the repose of Anna. In other words, this 00:00:46.770 --> 00:00:51.689 is the day that Mary's mother completed her earthly 00:00:51.689 --> 00:00:56.710 life. And it is a tradition in the church that 00:00:56.710 --> 00:01:01.200 a saint's day is not the saint's birthday. in 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:05.719 this world, but the saint's birthday in eternity, 00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:10.079 because that is what the irony of death is. It's 00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:13.500 not an end to life. It's a translation from one 00:01:13.500 --> 00:01:18.000 form of existence into a much richer and deeper 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:22.359 and joyous form of life. So this is to repose 00:01:22.359 --> 00:01:25.659 the entrance into eternal life of Saint Anna, 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:30.519 Mary's mother and Jesus' grandmother. And of 00:01:30.519 --> 00:01:33.299 course, those names are familiar because you 00:01:33.299 --> 00:01:36.400 hear them mentioned at the dismissal prayer through 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:38.879 the prayers of the holy ancestors of God, Joy, 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:46.819 Kim, and Anna. Today's gospel, though, is certainly 00:01:46.819 --> 00:01:52.680 a strange one. Among many priests, it's sort 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:56.439 of a tradition to... when they're talking with 00:01:56.439 --> 00:01:58.840 the priest, either right before this Sunday or 00:01:58.840 --> 00:02:02.079 right after this Sunday, they'll say, oh, we 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:06.819 have swine Sunday or pig Sunday coming up. What 00:02:06.819 --> 00:02:09.099 are you going to say about that? Or what did 00:02:09.099 --> 00:02:15.180 you say about pig Sunday last week? And to some 00:02:15.180 --> 00:02:21.580 people, it might seem that there's very little 00:02:21.580 --> 00:02:26.750 story or purpose in here. But quite to the contrary, 00:02:27.050 --> 00:02:35.270 what this event illustrates is how unnatural, 00:02:35.770 --> 00:02:41.969 how unnatural sin and evil are for human beings. 00:02:42.629 --> 00:02:47.210 The man who is possessed by evil, by demons, 00:02:47.330 --> 00:02:52.349 when he was cured by Jesus and the demons were 00:02:52.349 --> 00:02:57.150 driven out, They asked Jesus to send them somewhere 00:02:57.150 --> 00:03:03.729 else into the herd of swine. And when that happened, 00:03:03.849 --> 00:03:09.530 it drove those pigs crazy. They became suicidal. 00:03:09.610 --> 00:03:14.229 They rushed off a steep bank and drowned themselves. 00:03:14.969 --> 00:03:22.830 So to be possessed by evil, by evil spirits, 00:03:23.469 --> 00:03:27.349 is that illustrates how unnatural that is. Pigs 00:03:27.349 --> 00:03:30.870 couldn't stand it, drove them crazy. But human 00:03:30.870 --> 00:03:36.569 beings, ironically, we can be possessed by evil 00:03:36.569 --> 00:03:40.669 and sin and act as if it's just sort of normal 00:03:40.669 --> 00:03:47.169 form of behavior. I think this is illustrated 00:03:47.169 --> 00:03:51.590 in our contemporary society because there's been 00:03:51.590 --> 00:03:56.919 such a... in some quarters, an abandonment of 00:03:56.919 --> 00:04:02.479 traditional Judeo -Christian morality, behavior, 00:04:02.620 --> 00:04:07.819 especially between man and woman and the sacredness 00:04:07.819 --> 00:04:13.520 of marriage. And in addition to this, how natural 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:20.120 it seems for people to say that abortion is a 00:04:20.120 --> 00:04:23.490 morally neutral. There's no moral consideration. 00:04:23.889 --> 00:04:27.310 It's just something you can do if it's convenient 00:04:27.310 --> 00:04:32.069 or not. And the idea that this is actually the 00:04:32.069 --> 00:04:36.029 killing and the murder of an unborn human being, 00:04:36.089 --> 00:04:43.189 a baby, in the protectiveness of the womb, that 00:04:43.189 --> 00:04:46.689 for some people it just doesn't hit home to them. 00:04:48.620 --> 00:04:52.399 that our society and some people can condone 00:04:52.399 --> 00:04:57.560 these departures from the Ten Commandments with 00:04:57.560 --> 00:05:03.519 sexual immorality and with abortion. So it's 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:08.879 an opportunity for us to pray that the understanding 00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:14.699 of the Ten Commandments and traditional Judeo 00:05:14.699 --> 00:05:19.100 -Christian morality, which... codifies normal, 00:05:19.420 --> 00:05:24.459 natural human behavior. Even societies that did 00:05:24.459 --> 00:05:27.480 not have the benefit of the Ten Commandments 00:05:27.480 --> 00:05:31.879 and divine revelation knew they had a glimpse 00:05:31.879 --> 00:05:37.160 of what proper human conduct is about. So that 00:05:37.160 --> 00:05:41.720 it brings us also to a consideration of what 00:05:41.720 --> 00:05:46.850 is natural. Now, I'm sure that you've heard the 00:05:46.850 --> 00:05:51.470 expression, supernatural life. That if you pray 00:05:51.470 --> 00:05:57.149 and come into communion with God, it's supernatural 00:05:57.149 --> 00:06:04.009 life. But there's a validity in looking at it 00:06:04.009 --> 00:06:08.589 that way. But I think a more authentic and a 00:06:08.589 --> 00:06:12.889 more ancient way of looking at this is that to 00:06:12.889 --> 00:06:16.930 be in communion with God, is natural. It's not 00:06:16.930 --> 00:06:21.810 supernatural. God created man and woman to be 00:06:21.810 --> 00:06:26.009 in communion with God. That is what is natural 00:06:26.009 --> 00:06:30.910 for us, to be out of communion with God, to be 00:06:30.910 --> 00:06:34.550 controlled by sin and evil, as this unfortunate 00:06:34.550 --> 00:06:38.810 man was in today's gospel. This is unnatural. 00:06:39.689 --> 00:06:44.250 So it's two different ways of looking at one 00:06:44.250 --> 00:06:48.629 reality. The preferable one, I believe, which 00:06:48.629 --> 00:06:52.850 is in patristic tradition fundamentally, that 00:06:52.850 --> 00:06:58.189 it's natural for us to be in communion with God. 00:06:58.430 --> 00:07:03.810 To be out of communion with God is inhuman. God 00:07:03.810 --> 00:07:07.370 created our first parents to be in communion 00:07:07.370 --> 00:07:12.410 with him. That is what is natural for us. And 00:07:12.410 --> 00:07:16.589 Jesus came into the world not to offer us so 00:07:16.589 --> 00:07:20.769 much supernatural life or supernatural relationship 00:07:20.769 --> 00:07:25.709 with God, but rather to restore us to what is 00:07:25.709 --> 00:07:30.689 authentically human, authentically natural for 00:07:30.689 --> 00:07:36.269 us, to be in love with God, to be in communion 00:07:36.269 --> 00:07:44.790 with God. In line with this, there's one verse 00:07:44.790 --> 00:07:51.089 in today's epistle that I've always thought really 00:07:51.089 --> 00:07:56.129 encapsulates the gospel. It encapsulates the 00:07:56.129 --> 00:08:00.149 Christian message. I don't know if you really 00:08:00.149 --> 00:08:03.170 caught it, but I'm sure when I repeat it, you'll 00:08:03.170 --> 00:08:07.110 say, oh yeah. St. Paul says near the end of his 00:08:07.110 --> 00:08:12.220 epistle to the Romans, He says, if you confess 00:08:12.220 --> 00:08:18.439 with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you 00:08:18.439 --> 00:08:22.199 believe in your heart that God raised him from 00:08:22.199 --> 00:08:27.720 the dead, you will be saved. That, my friends, 00:08:27.740 --> 00:08:31.980 is the Christian message. That is the gospel 00:08:31.980 --> 00:08:37.340 right there. This was also really the earliest 00:08:37.340 --> 00:08:42.779 profession of faith. When someone turned to Jesus, 00:08:43.259 --> 00:08:48.480 all they had to do was say, Jesus is Lord, make 00:08:48.480 --> 00:08:52.019 that affirmation, and that was sufficient to 00:08:52.019 --> 00:08:55.279 be baptized. Of course, there were instructions 00:08:55.279 --> 00:08:58.860 that were carried on as well. But that's the 00:08:58.860 --> 00:09:03.000 fundamental turning point of a human being, to 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:08.460 confess with our mouth, Jesus is Lord. and also 00:09:08.460 --> 00:09:12.700 to believe firmly in our heart what is the goal 00:09:12.700 --> 00:09:18.299 of our human life, to have eternal life, life 00:09:18.299 --> 00:09:21.720 in communion with God, and believe in your heart 00:09:21.720 --> 00:09:26.799 that God raised him from the dead, you will be 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:31.759 saved. So the belief in Jesus as Lord, not just 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:37.080 an earthly Lord, but the heavenly divine Lord, 00:09:37.450 --> 00:09:41.190 of the universe, that Jesus is Lord, and he's 00:09:41.190 --> 00:09:47.409 the Lord of my life. And to believe that he has 00:09:47.409 --> 00:09:51.830 given us a pathway from this world into eternity, 00:09:51.830 --> 00:09:56.789 this is salvation. And as I said at the very 00:09:56.789 --> 00:10:01.490 beginning, one of the many saints who have shown 00:10:01.490 --> 00:10:05.029 us the way after the Lord Jesus himself with 00:10:05.029 --> 00:10:09.669 his resurrection. that they have left this world 00:10:09.669 --> 00:10:14.389 and gone into eternal life and eternal happiness, 00:10:14.570 --> 00:10:18.889 which was their goal and is our goal. So let 00:10:18.889 --> 00:10:22.590 us live as naturally as possible in this world, 00:10:22.730 --> 00:10:27.690 being in communion with God, rejecting everything 00:10:27.690 --> 00:10:33.690 possible that is sinful and unnatural to us. 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:38.220 to live an authentic human life of communion 00:10:38.220 --> 00:10:43.000 with God. Tertullian said, in conclusion, Tertullian 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:47.940 has a very famous, he was a, he lived about, 00:10:48.139 --> 00:10:51.820 flourished about the year 200, theologian in 00:10:51.820 --> 00:10:56.159 North Africa. He referred to human beings as, 00:10:56.440 --> 00:11:02.919 that the human soul, he says, anima naturaliter, 00:11:03.419 --> 00:11:08.600 Christiana. The human soul is naturally Christian. 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:13.679 So Christianity, belief in Jesus, belief in his 00:11:13.679 --> 00:11:17.340 resurrection from the dead, is our restoration 00:11:17.340 --> 00:11:21.419 to natural life in preparation for the life to 00:11:21.419 --> 00:11:22.679 come. Amen.