Homilies

April 7, 2008
Monday of the Third Week of Easter
Acts 6:8-15; John 6:22-29
Fr. Marcellus Earl, OCSO

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, does anyone know how many grains of sand there are on the seashores throughout the world? Or how many fish there are in the sea, or to push it almost to the limit, how many electrons there are in the universe? I dare say that even our greatest scientists cannot come up with a precise number to answer these questions. Can anyone? Only God who knows everything.

True, but is it of any importance for us to know such things? Hardly, for if it was important or necessary we would all be in bad shape. But these questions pertain to the truth, don't they? Yes, at every moment there is a precise answer to each of the questions but those answers are not of importance to us, or God would have revealed them.

God is truth and he has revealed to us all the truth we need to reach the goal he has prepared for our lives: eternal union with him in a face to face vision that utterly transforms us for it will make us like unto himself. All the truth we need to know to attain this goal is found in Jesus Christ. Listen to what he said at the end of today's Gospel: "This is the work of God, have faith in the One whom he sent." Of course, Jesus is referring to himself here.

These words were addressed to a group of people who had followed him after he had feed them in the desert by multiplying loaves and fishes. He told them the reason they followed him was because they had eaten their fill of the loaves. They were working for perishable food and not for the food that remains unto life eternal. Isn't that the truth? How many people come to Christ for the wrong reasons, looking to seek their material needs without concern for truth and other higher realities.

Here is a great and important truth that we should all burn into our souls as with a branding iron: Jesus said that he was the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him. Think of that, Jesus is the bridge between heaven and earth. There is no other way of getting to heaven. There is no other name given to us under heaven by which we are to be saved except the name of Jesus.

What that means is that without Jesus, money, exercise, following a healthy diet, power, influence, fame, celebrity, worldly success, political power, overwhelming military power, or any religion that does not contain Christ, cannot save us. "Some trust in horses and chariots. but we in name of the Lord," that is, Jesus, our Savior and King.

What did I mean when I mentioned in that list any religion that does not contain Christ? Simply this, Christ founded one Church whose members would become parts of his mystical body. That church was founded on Peter and the other apostles who would become the bishops, They would pass on their office and powers to successors who would keep the line going down through the ages. There would be one Church which would be holy because Christ who is holy would live within it and give it holy powers, sacraments and truth. It would be catholic or universal because all people are called to share the gifts and graces abounding in the Church and because it quickly spread throughout the world and now can be found everywhere. It is apostolic because of the unbroken line tracing back to the first apostles.

Any church or religion that has broken off from this church or has grown up outside its boundaries teaching false doctrine contrary to the teaching of Christ and relies on merely human elements is a dead end street that cannot save its members. Understand me well: I'm not saying that people who are members of such groups are all lost. The Church and the Scriptures affirm that they can be saved but it won't be by the inadequate religion they follow. It will be by Christ who lives in their hearts because they are of good will, practice love and other virtues, and follow their consciences.

Let us strive to be good members of Christ's body doing the work of God, that is, having faith in Jesus whom God has sent us and living the faith in love. Thus we shall not only be saved ourselves but we will help to build up the body of Christ so that he will be able to present it to the Father at the end of time, resplendent, and without any stains or wrinkles, a spouse worthy of himself.