Hope of Salvation
Invitation to make ourselves ready for the Lord and our eternal destiny
Second Sunday of Advent
12/13/06
Presented by Father Ed Jocson
Opening Prayer
I.
Theme of Sunday’s readings: The Road Home.
Joyful anticipation of eternal salvation, and the call to conversion and
turning away from sin.
Joyful anticipation: prediction of
Call to conversion: ongoing conversion in preparation to meet the Lord who is coming.
The form of the Word in this Sunday’s liturgy is the prophetic promise of salvation. For the scattered people of God, an experience of being gathered. For the degraded and miserable, honor and rescue. For all people, it is offered through the mighty acts of God in history – particularly through the coming of Jesus, the Son of God, into the world.
The Road Home, from Dr. Scott Hahn at the
“Each
of us, the Liturgy teaches, is like Israel in her exile - led into captivity by
our sinfulness, in need of restoration, conversion by the Word of the Holy One
(see Baruch 5:5).
The lessons of salvation history should teach us that, as God again and again
delivered
We
have a very active role in this process. We’re not merely bystanders. It is by
Christ and by mercy, but we must act accordingly and live a life we’re called
to live on “the road home.”
II.
Our
Eternal Destiny: the Four Last Things (CCC. 988-1065)
The
final article of the Creed proclaims our belief in everlasting life: “I believe
in the resurrection of the body and of life everlasting. Amen.”
The
four last things are:
1.
Christian
death
-
Death
is the natural and inevitable end of life on earth. This reality and its
finality give an urgency to our lives
-
Death
is thought of with fear, denial or excitement over passage into everlasting
life (heaven)
-
“Death
puts an end to human life or the time open to either accepting or rejecting the
divine grace manifested in Christ.” (CCC. 1021) It’s the end of our time to
choose to be with God or not. The grace is always there. The offer of salvation
is always there. We have only our time on earth to accept it or not.
-
“Each
man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of
his death, in a particular judgment … either entrance into the blessedness of
heaven – through a purification (purgatory) or
immediately (saints) – or immediate and everlasting damnation (hell).” (CCC.
1022)
-
The
death of a person marks an end to our earthly journey with its sorrows and
joys, its sinful failures, and the triumphs of Christ’s saving grace and help.
-
Anointing
of the sick considered the same as sacrament of reconciliation (confession),
seeing to it that at the proper time the they receive
the sacraments that prepare them to meet the living God.
-
The
church always presumes that if the anointing of the sick is requested, the
person wanted to be with God.
-
If
someone is unable to know God and Christ, either through their life situation
(third-world country), mental retardation, etc. , but
follows the goodness that is writ in all of our hearts, they will stand with
God on their day of judgment.
-
We
always maintain reverence for the bodies of the deceased. The rituals
accompanying respect for the dead include the funeral rite (wake), the funeral
itself (preferably with a Mass), and the burial of the body or the cremated
remains of the deceased at the cemetery.
-
The
church prefers the burial of the body but does allow for cremation, provided it
does not demonstrate a denial of faith in resurrection of the body. Whenever a
Catholic is cremated, the remains are to be buried, not scattered.
2.
Judgment
-
The
state of our souls at death determines what happens when we stand before God.
-
Immediately
after death, each person comes before God and is judged individually (particular
judgment)
-
At
the end of time, when Christ returns in glory, a final judgment will take place
when all are raised from the dead and assembled before God (CCC. 1040). Our
relationship with him is then made public. We receive our resurrected,
glorified bodies (general/final judgment). By death the soul is separated from
the body, but in the resurrection God will give incorruptible life to our body,
transformed by reunion with our soul, though we don’t know how. Just as Christ
is risen and lives forever, so all of us will rise at the last day. The manner
of our resurrection exceeds our understanding and imagination and is accessible
only to our faith.
3.
Heaven
-
Heaven
is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of
supreme, definitive happiness (CCC. 1024). This will be brought about by a
perfect communion with the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Mother, the angels and the
saints. Seeing God face-to-face in all his glory is the essential aspect of
heaven (beatific vision).
-
Purgatory
is the “final purification” of the elect (CCC. 1031). Those who die in the
state of friendship with God, but are not fully purified and perfected (though
assured of their eternal salvation), must undergo a purification to obtain the
perfection of love and holiness needed to enter heaven. Most believers fall
into this category.
-
The
new heaven and the new earth: renewal of the universe in Christ.
4.
Hell
-
Hell
is eternal separation from God that has been freely chosen (CCC. 1035). When we
sin seriously against God (refusing to love him, neighbor or self), we have
failed to love God. Persistence in a state of “serious sin” reflects a choice
to separate ourselves from him.
- Scripture and the teaching of the church regarding heaven and hell emphasize a call to personal responsibility by which we use our freedom, aided by divine grace, to respond completely to God’s love. There is always an urgent call to conversion and repentance. “God predestines no one go to hell.” (CCC. 1037).
The
church declares that God has created man in view of the blessed destiny that
lies beyond the limits of state on earth.
Each
of us is like
The prophets call us to live in hope, and their message gives form and substance to this hope. They do not always specify through their preaching the exact shape of the future. Rather, they educate our hope, which is to be placed in God.
John the Baptist directs us to the object of our longing (our hope). He points the way to our hope, quotes Isaiah 40:3-5 (preparing “the way” for Christ’s coming:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight
his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every
mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made
straight,
and the rough
ways made smooth,
and all
flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
Our
faithful God put Himself in our debt not by receiving anything from us but by
promising us so much. A promise was not sufficient for Him. He chose to commit
Himself in writing as well (prophesies). And because God’s promises seemed
impossible, He established a mediator of His good faith – His only Son. All
this had to be prophesied, foretold, and impressed upon us as an event in the
future, in order that we might wait for it in faith, and not find it in a
sudden and dreadful reality.
The
message of salvation, impressed upon us by the prophets, makes us who we are
this Advent – a people who watch for the day, hoping that God’s promise will be
ours.
ADDITIONAL
NOTE: December 12 is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. During a time of
violence between Iberian Christians of Europe and the Aztecs here in the