C Cycle – 20thSnday in Ordinary Time 25

Heb. 12:1-4

It seems the scriptures contradict themselves at times. But one thing we know about God is He is consistent in what He desires of us, how He speaks to us and what He does for us.  God’s plan for us is fixed, enduring thousands of years and will continue that way until the end of time.

 In today’s second readings Paul tells us to rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us.  In another epistle, he tells us “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 8:23).  We are sinful people and to think otherwise is to deny our human nature is selfish.  We must admit Paul is correct about our sinfulness otherwise the Christ’s sacrifice was unnecessary. We need a savior, otherwise, left to our own devices we would continually sin.  How can we rid ourselves of sin when the outcome would be to discover another sin, we will need to root out of ourselves. We were born into sin and will die in sin.  But be of good cheer, we do have a savior who died for our sin.

The eternal flaw of being human is our self-sufficiency. Our strong desire to accomplish things by ourselves.  That inner drive for control over our destiny shows up early in our development.  I became aware of that desire in my first child as she declared she could dress herself – “I can do it by myself, she sternly declared when she was two years old. Proudly standing before me with her top on backward and shoes on the wrong feet. What could I say, but yes you can but there is more to dressing oneself than putting on clothes. 

There is more to learn when it comes to our “righteousness.” We will never clothe ourselves in righteousness. Any attempt will only have us focus on changing what we do instead of changing our hearts.  God never intended our holiness to be accomplished by our own effort. Instead, He intended for us to surrender our holiness to His plan to change our desires emanating from our hearts.  God does demand us to be holy as He is holy, but He also has equipped to become holy men and women.  But we continue to deceive ourselves, just as Saul of Tarsus deceived himself about his denial of Christ. 

We ignore the plan God put in place because we like Saul, fail to see the reality of what the death of Jesus accomplished for us.  The death and resurrection of Christ removed the barrier of sin between us and God.  We see that immediately when Christ spoke to the thief and announced that day he would be in paradise with Jesus. No penalty for the sins he committed. 

To grasp the reality of how we can rid ourselves of sin we only have to meditate on the words of Jesus to every sinner.  Or meditate on the words of Jesus telling us how “…apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn.15:5). We will never be righteous until we admit we need to be dependent on to things God did to ensure our righteousness.  The first part of God’s plane was to have us believing that the shed blood of a sacrificial lamb would be necessary for forgiveness.  But those sacrifices did nothing to change the desires of the heart.  But God had a plan to change our hearts and that was the task of the Holy Spiritt whom Jesus would send.

To overcome our independence, He promises to change our hearts by the action and transforming power of the Holy Spirit.   Christ’s death took away the burden, the penalty, and the consequence of our sinfulness.  But God knew we would continue to sin.  We needed something more to be able to overcome our human nature.  Once we allow the grace of the cross to permeate our hearts we will realize how much we need the Holy Spirit.  It is at that point we are ready to invite the Spirit to accomplish what God desires and that is to change our hearts.    

 That creative Spiri, that Ruah that swept over the vast wilderness of the earth and changed a vast wasteland into a paradise where we are destined to live. Without the action of the Holy Spirit, we will never overcome our urge for self-sufficiency.  We will remain self-centered acting on our own impulses instead of depending on the promptings of the Spirit.  However, if we admit we cannot overcome our sins, or rid ourselves of the burden of the penalty for our sins until we allow the Spirit to change our hearts. 

 We need that baptism, Jesus came to administer.  That baptism of fire. We were baptized in the waters and anointed with oil at confirmation.  We have the spirit dwelling within us.  We come to live holy lives by our own efforts.  It is no wonder Paul encouraged us to rid ourselves of sin.  He also knew the futility of dependence on Christ and the Holy Spirit.  He is not advising us to do it on our own but to seek an encounter with Christ like he had. It has always been what God offer us.  We must choose just as Mary chose, Moses chose, every disciple chose. It is an ancient choice which God puts before us “… I have put before you life and death; choose life” (Deu. 30;15).