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Good evening, and praise God!
When Marge asked me to take part in this Life in the Spirit Seminar, I said, "Sure. Happy to help." Then she said, "Your topic will be 'Salvation.'"
My first thought was, Well, that's a nice concise, well-defined topic. It covers only the entirety of our human existence - our sole reason for being. And I have to address it in 30 minutes or less. Thanks a lot, Marge.
But then I recalled some advice I received early in life: You can take what you're given and try to do your best, or you can turn to God in humility and ask for the Spirit's inspiration. God's work is always far better than your best.
Indeed, if we let Him, the Holy Spirit will give us the words, the Word of Salvation. So, I decided to take that advice and turn it over to the Spirit. I'll just try to be God's mouthpiece.
Let me begin by briefly describing my own journey to life in the Spirit, a journey that really began when I married Diane.
Diane, brought up a Southern Baptist, had spent time among the Methodists, and during her college years finally settled in with the Pentecostals. It was then that she experienced a Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Now by the time we married, she had converted to Catholicism.
A few years later, while living in Monterey, California, she encouraged me to attend a Life in the Spirit Seminar put on by our parish's charismatic prayer group. And not long after that I experienced my own vivid Baptism in the Spirit. It was an event that completely changed me. I believe ultimately it led me to the diaconate.
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| The Holy Spirit Present In the Church |
They handed me one of their tracts and then the boy asked, "Are you saved?" I simply replied, "Yes, I am, but I'm still working on it."
I don't think they knew what to make of that response, and so the girl said, "If you're saved, you're saved. That's all there is to it."
So I expanded my comment by telling them I was just following St. Paul's advice when he told the Philippians to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling" [Phil 2:12].
He led me to Jesus' words in Luke:
"For the holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say" [Lk 12:12]and again in John:
'He will teach you everything..." [Jn 14:26]In effect the Holy Spirit told me not to worry about it. But then I heard these words, and I heard them just as you're hearing my words right now: "...Just stay close to me."
Well, after I'd quoted St. Paul, the boy chimed in with "Paul was wrong. Jesus told us not to fear." They then scooted off to accost someone else.
Of course, they were wrong, not Paul. Yes, they were very wrong, because St. Paul and Jesus were speaking of two very different kinds of fear.
Paul was referring to a reverential fear that moves us to do God's will because of our love for Him. He wasn't speaking of a servile fear or fear of punishment. Indeed, the fear Paul speaks of is a gift of the Holy Spirit, the "fear of the Lord" that comes from an understanding of the reality of who God is and who we are. It's a sense of reverence and awe at the majesty of God and a healthy revulsion at the very thought of sinning against Him.
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| Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom [Prv 9:10] |
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| Fear not, I am with you |
But what does all this talk about fear have to do with our salvation? Actually, it has everything to do with it. Let me show you why.
I suppose the first time I really thought very deeply about my salvation was in eighth grade when Sister Francis Jane looked out at our class of 40 boys and girls and asked us: "Does anyone here not want to go to heaven?"
No hands went up, although there were a few scattered snickers. I'm not sure why, but 13-year-olds tend to snicker at pretty much everything.
Sister than asked, "How do you plan on getting there? Any ideas?"
With that a bunch of hands went up. Of course, they were all attached to girls.
One girl said, "By obeying the Ten Commandments," and another, "By loving God and my neighbor," and a third, "By helping others, especially the poor," and these were followed by three or four similar responses. I think one boy finally joined in and said, "Drop your envelope in the basket."
That generated a few more chuckles, all from the boys, until Sister gave us "the look." She then said, "You all seem to think that you can earn your way to heaven. Well, let me tell you, that's not how it works."
She picked up that big Bible of hers, turned to Luke's Gospel and read that passage in which the sinful woman comes to Jesus while He's dining at the home of the Pharisee Simon [Lk 7:36-50].
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A Pharisee invited him to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.”
Jesus said to him in reply, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
“Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?”
Simon said in reply, “The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.”
He said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment. So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”
He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The others at table said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
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Did you notice that throughout her encounter with Jesus the woman said nothing; the dialog is all between Jesus and Simon.
Yes, she said nothing, but her actions said everything. She bathed Jesus feet with her tears, drenched them with expensive perfumed oil, and then dried them with her hair. Unlike Simon who as host hadn't extended even the most basic hospitality to Jesus, the woman was over the top. Her love for God, her love for Jesus was so great...But why?
Jesus gives us the answer in His dialog with Simon: because she knew she'd been forgiven. Jesus, you see, explained it all to Simon (and to us) when He said:
"So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love."In other words, this display of love on her part resulted from the forgiveness of her sins, which had already occurred. When Jesus followed this by saying to her "Your sins are forgiven," He merely confirmed what she already knew. But then he says, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
And so, what are we to make of all this? Well, it's really all of one piece, wrapped up in those three theological virtues of faith, hope and love.
Faith, we are told is a gift, a gratuitous gift. And I think we can all accept this, since in our sinfulness we are certainly less than deserving. This is where the Holy Spirit steps in, for He is the gift-giver. He is the source of that desire, that need for God, that movement within us, which opens us to the gift. He rends our hearts; He tears open the human heart so Father and Son can dwell there.
Speaking with the twelve the night before He died, Jesus told them:
"Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him" [Jn 14:23].This indwelling is the work of the Holy Spirit, for Jesus had already told the apostles:
"The Father...will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth...it remains with you, and will be in you" [Jn 14:16-17].Yes, the Spirit, the Advocate, does God's work in the world, and He does God's work in each of us. I sometimes refer to the Holy Spirit (almost sacrilegiously) as God's Workhorse. It's just a metaphor, Lord. In a sense He's the behind the scenes manifestation of God's Presence in the World. He does God's work in the world. But it's more than that.
Every Sunday, we come together and proclaim the Nicene Creed aloud, confirming the totality of our faith. And in doing so we utter those words:
"I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life..."What life? Well, the Creed doesn't qualify it, does it? It specifies no exceptions. The Holy Spirit is the giver of all life.
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| The Holy Sprit, the Lord and Giver of Life |
Filled with the Spirit, and with the hope He offers, she is moved to seek out Jesus. My mother used to say, "Hope moves us; it moves us to faith." That's what hope does. It moves us, it drives us despite our fears, despite everything the world throws at us.
Did the sinful woman have reason to fear? She certainly did. From a human standpoint she risked a lot. She risked chastisement, ridicule, condemnation, the public exposure of her sins, perhaps even physical harm. And in approaching this holy man, who was in the presence of those who despised her, from a human perspective she might well have feared His reaction. Yes, humanly, naturally, she should have been afraid.
But she wasn't...because she had accepted the Spirit's gift of faith, a supernatural gift that dissolves all fear, that instills hope, a gift that calls us to trust, that calls us to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It was through her acceptance of that gift that the Holy Spirit revealed the divine person of Jesus, a gift that called her to love, to worship. It was her acceptance of that gift that moved her to repentance that gave her hope, allowing her to accept the forgiveness Jesus offered.
It's one divine gift after another. And it was hope that drove her to come to Jesus, that revealed His forgiveness of her sins. Filled with faith, and driven by hope, she can only love. Her love is directed solely at Jesus, the source of her salvation.
Do you see what's happened here? Like the sun burning off a morning fog, the Spirit within her has burned off her fears. They have simply evaporated. The Spirit revealed several things to her:
1. She is a sinner, but that forgiveness is available to her; she need only repent;
2. The Lord, Jesus Christ, is the source of forgiveness;
3. Her hope is real, forgiveness is hers. Salvation awaits.
She believes, she repents, she's forgiven, and she loves.
It's through this simple process of faith, repentance, forgiveness and love that Jesus offers her the gift of salvation - something that He confirms when He tells her:
"Your faith has saved you..."Salvation then is her eternal reward. But that's not all. There's also a temporal reward. Jesus added something. Did you hear it?
He added three words: "Go in peace."
She will also be rewarded in this life with the gift of God's peace. And what is God's peace other than hope realized?
That's what I learned in the eighth grade from that good Dominican, Sister Francis Jane.
Now, some Christians consider salvation a one-time experience in the life of the Christian - that we need only accept Jesus in faith as our Lord and Savior and we are saved - no matter what. Such a teaching, however, ignores the reality of human life, of human nature itself. You see, sad as it is, you and I remain sinners, constantly in need of repentance and forgiveness, called to love until our last breath. Called, like Paul, to work out our "salvation with fear and trembling."
Yes, salvation is a gift, but one that demands more than an intellectual acceptance, more than an emotional acceptance. It demands the acceptance of a lifetime. It confronts us with a choice: We can reject the gift, turn away from God, either out of fear of the worldly consequences, or out of despair because of the magnitude of our sinfulness; or we can accept the gift and turn to Him in love.
This demands a radical change, an abandonment of the life that precedes it. Once again the sinful woman shows us the way. She ignores the many fears through which Satan tried to turn her from Jesus, and though her sins are many, she doesn't despair. The Spirit had revealed to her what Jesus later taught his disciples when He referred to Himself as the Good Shepherd:
"I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly" [Jn 10:9-10].
You see, brothers and sisters, salvation demands a living faith. And the path to salvation is the path of discipleship. Did she became a disciple? In the very next verses Luke tells us of the women who had been healed of their sinfulness, their infirmities, and their demons, who went on to follow Jesus on the way. I doubt that Luke placed these words there accidentally.
And note, too, that her tears are not tears of sadness; they are tears of joy. Salvation is a gift of joy. It's the Good News, and we must live its acceptance as joyful Christians.
I'm pretty sure Deacon Dick will agree with me. At Mass when I go to the ambo to proclaim the Gospel and look up at the thousand faces before me, I have to search for a happy face. Here I am about to proclaim the Good News and it looks as if they've just received bad news.
The Good News is salvation itself, and we must live its acceptance as joyful Christians. After all, how can there be any other kind of Christian? And from what source do we receive this additional gift of joy? St. Paul reveals it, as he completes his letter to the Romans:
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" [Rom 15:13]That certainly sums it all up, doesn't it?
And how blessed we are today...because we have the Church and her graces. When we accept God's call and turn to Him in trust, we too are saved by rejecting Satan and sin, by praying in and with the Holy Spirit, and being open to His movement in our lives, by active participation in the Church's sacramental life, and by extending God's love to all.
These are no less than the promises that define our sacramental Baptism.
Let me leave you tonight with the words of St. Jude, in perhaps the least read little book of the New Testament, when he calls us to:
"Pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life" [Jude 20-21].God love you all.
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