The second Sunday of Advent features the gospel reading
about John the Baptist wearing a camel’s hair shirt and leather belt, preaching
in the desert: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” People flocked to him to be baptized, while
he prophesied the coming of Jesus. When John
recognized Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptized, he shouted out, “You
brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” It must have been quite a sight. We also heard Isaiah’s prophecy about Christ
coming with “a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and
of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD.” Notice the
repeated use of the term “spirit.”
All this reminds me of what the Church calls, the “fruits
of the Spirit.” These fruits prove to us the power of God’s
grace at work in our lives when we abide in Him and lead a moral life. The catechism of the Catholic Church lists
these fruits as: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity,
gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity. (CCC 1832) Wouldn’t it be great if this list of
attributes described our character? Last
week in this blog, I wrote about peace, being the product of putting our life
in order so that our spirit directs the physical aspect of our lives and our
spirit is ordered to God. St. Augustine
called this “the tranquility of order.” Conversely, allowing physical desires
to direct our lives leads to disorder, and failing to order our spirit to the
Spirit of God, causes us to miss out on the fruits of the Spirit.
Advent is traditionally the time for preparing for the
coming of Christ, not just the Christ-child at Christmas, but the coming of
Christ at the end of our lives, and at the end of time. This preparation should include a reflection
on whether or not we are cultivating the fruits of the Spirit in our lives,
preparing our spirit to encounter Christ when we will have to give an account
of the person whom we have become. Of
course none of us will ever be perfect, and we know that Christ came for our
salvation, despite our sinfulness. Yet,
meeting Him face to face will be all the more difficult if we die in the state
of sin. How could we possibly be
comfortable living for all eternity in the Presence of God if our sinfulness
remains? We need to be purged of our
sinfulness in order to remain in His Presence and experience the mystery of God’s
infinite Love. This “purging” is the
source of our concept of purgatory. Describing
purgatory of as a place of pain and suffering that we must endure for some
specified time, is probably the best we could do to depict the process of
burning away our sinful imperfection.
My own belief (not necessarily a good explanation of Catholic dogma) is
that we will definitely suffer, but since there is no time in eternity, it will
not be for a specific amount of time.
Rather, the extent of our pain (whether physical, emotional or
spiritual) is likely to be proportional to the degree of our sinfulness and imperfection.
Facing the errors and consequences of
our sinfulness, in the presence of God, will undoubtedly be incredibly painful,
but a necessary action if we are to become capable of living joyfully in the
presence of God. Perhaps this is what
Jesus was referring to when He said we must become perfect, like our heavenly
Father. We cannot accomplish this on our
own, but only through the saving grace of Jesus.
In the meanwhile, while we’re here on earth, plodding
along through our lives, we still have the opportunity to build a moral life,
and in doing so, enjoy the fruits of the Spirit. During Advent we hear songs and stories about
joy, peace, faithfulness, charity, and gentleness, all fruits of the
Spirit. Isn’t about time we considered
how to make these enduring qualities a permanent attributes of our life and
spirit?
Part 2 – The opposite of the fruits of the Spirit
Think now for a moment about what life would be like if
we chose to ignore the importance of cultivating a moral life. The Word of God (Scripture and Jesus Himself)
give us a template for leading a moral life, and the foundation upon which to
build our lives. In the parable about
building a house on sand, Jesus warns that unless our lives are built on a
strong foundation, on the Word of God, we are likely to be swept away when
faced with the storms of life. What if
we fail to recognize that human life is sacred because it springs from the Life
of God Himself? If human life is not
sacred, can it be cast aside when it is in convenient? Are
human rights inviolate, or do they depend on whether or not that person is
contributing his fair share to society? Society has become so comfortable with
abortion that we now turn to euthanasia to help solve the problem of too many
elderly compared to the smaller number of young people which has resulted from
declining birthrates. The Province of
Quebec is on the verge of legalizing euthanasia as part of their new statement
of values, and to address the financial crisis which is worsening as their
population dwindles and they cannot afford the healthcare required by the
elderly.
In our own country, our president proudly announced how
great it is that our government enacts policies that reflect our national
values, and in the next sentence touted the fact that under Obamacare,
contraception is now free to everyone.
So much for the virtues (fruits of the spirit) of modesty, chastity, and
self-control. One of the moral
imperatives we receive from God’s law is truthfulness. We’ve been taught to believe that it is
sinful to lie, and to this day, we require people to “swear to tell the truth,
so help me God,” when testifying in court.
However, in recent months, lie after lie has been repeated with respect
to Obamacare, and no one seems to take note, it’s just business as usual. Lying
has become so pervasive as to go unnoticed and unreported, over and over again,
in part because it perpetuates the false notion that everything is just fine,
the way it is. One of the more egregious
lies came out this week in the so-called “jobs report” which stated that
203,000 new jobs were created last month.
A closer look at the BLS data reveals that in fact, only 83,000 more
people are working than were working 3 months ago. During that same period 640,000 people have
left the workforce permanently. That’s
what accounts for the unemployment rate dropping to 7%, not more people
working, fewer people looking for work.
The net increase of 203,000 jobs last month counted the 400,000 federal
workers who had been temporarily furloughed for a couple weeks. This data is not a secret, anybody can read
it in the federal government’s BLS website, but nobody questions any of
it. The truth is that our economy is
hanging on by a thread, bolstered by government spending which is funded by
borrowing money which will be increasingly hard to payback because the
workforce has been steadily shrinking as a proportion of our total
population.
All this reminds me of the words of John the Baptist, “You
brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” Oddly enough, anyone who tries to point out
the fallacy of the president’s statements or the government reports is viewed
as though they were a raving maniac, wearing a camel’s hair shirt.
Hi Uncle Joe. This is Michael (Heather's husband). I enjoy reading your blog posts, but I was saddened at one point in this blog when you spoke of the need for purgatory. I completely agree with you that we cannot enter God's presence as sinners, but that is why Christ paid all the penalty needed on the cross. The Apostle Paul reminds us that "For our sake, God made Him to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Cor 5:21)
ReplyDeleteIf Christ came for our salvation, as you yourself say, then there is no need for purgatory for if purgatory were necessary then the sacrifice of Christ was insufficient to pay for sins, but this goes against what the Scriptures tell us in Hebrews 10:25-28.
Although I still sin, when God looks at me, because I am in Christ by faith, He sees me as righteous. This is the salvation offered to believers, and it gives assurance that in life and in death there is no more condemnation (see Rom 8:1).
So yes, while on earth we still seek to grow in character and to eliminate sin in our daily lives, but it is Christ who has paid for all my sin, and it is not purgatory that will rid me of my sinfulness but as the Apostle John says, "when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is." (1 John 3:2) This is the advent hope of Christ - that we might be with Him in glory when He returns, not because of anything we have done, but because of what Christ has done for us on the cross.
To Christ be all the glory!