“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”1 These days this exhortation is usually passed over in silence. Gospel, as we all know, means Good News. In addition to being timely and relevant, news conveys information. News tells you something.
What is the content of the Good News? Jesus suffered, died, rose on the third day, and sent his Holy Spirit as his presence in, among, and through us until he comes again. Our first reading today is from Acts 2. Its context is the first Christian Pentecost.
“Pentecost” is Greek. It means fifty days. For the Greek-speaking Jews of the Second Temple period, which was most Jews at that time, Pentecost referred to the Jewish feast of Shavuot. Shavuot is celebrated fifty days after the conclusion of Passover. This is why it is important to qualify it as “the first Christian Pentecost.” It is not the only or even the first Pentecost.
What the Jewish people celebrate during Shavuot is God giving the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai. This is the single most important event in the history of Israel. Torah is what sets Israel apart from other nations and peoples. Torah is what them distinctively God's people.
By Jesus’ time, for some Jews, by no means all and maybe not even most, but certainly for the Pharisees with whom he disputed, observing Torah had become a matter of adhering to the 613 mitzvot. Meaning “word” in Hebrew, in the context of Torah, mitzvot means rules. Hence, one is a “good” Jew if s/he keeps all these rules, doing what these require and not doing what they forbid.
Before taking a dim view of this kind of religiosity, it’s important to note that for many Christians, Catholics seem particularly prone, this same mindset is evident. Faith becomes a matter of adherence to a set of rules: do this; don’t do that. This, it seems to me, is often quite accurately reflected in the routines of comedians who were raised Catholic. Bill Burr, an Irish Catholic from Boston, immediately to my mind.
In 1 Timothy, we learn “that the law is good, provided one uses it as law.”2 What is meant in this deutero-Pauline letter by using the law as law? The law is used as law, according to this scripture, when it is understood “that law is meant not for the righteous person but for the lawless and unruly, the godless and sinful, the unholy and the profane,” etc.3 In short, God gave the law for sinners like you and me.
God gives the law, which, as Paul notes in Romans, is written on our hearts, to each person as a standard or measure of holiness.4 It is rightly used to show you how far short you fall when it comes to love of God and neighbor. It is misused when, despite one’s failures, it is applied to someone else, using this standard to judge them. The worst thing about this misuse is that one who does it put himself in God’s place.
In his letter to the church in Galatia, the apostle taught that the law is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Then, once justified through repentance and belief, you no longer need a schoolmaster because, according to Paul, “through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus.”5
Here is the law given on the first Christian Pentecost: repent and be baptized in Jesus’ name and your sins will be forgiven. All that remains, as indicated in our passage from the Acts of the Apostles, is to accept or reject this Good News.
What about sins I commit after baptism? We have the sacrament of penance, which is an extension of the sacrament of baptism. Because the name of God is mercy, God makes provision for our weakness, our inability, our stubbornness, and our struggles.
Being baptized and forgiven should mark a turning point in your life. Your life after baptism should look different than your life before baptism. Why? Because through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, you have been forgiven! Baptism, as we witnessed so powerfully at the Easter Vigil, is your liberation from bondage to Pharoah.
Our reading from 1 Peter says- “If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God.”6 More than a grace before God, this passage goes on to say, this is our baptismal vocation.7 Your vocation consists of becoming more and more like Jesus. Contrary to those who preach the so-called “Prosperity Gospel,” being a Christian is not about living your best life now, being healthy, wealthy, and very good-looking.
The Fourth Sunday of Easter, for obvious reasons, is Good Shepherd Sunday. As such, it is World Vocations Day. As mentioned, if you’re baptized, you’re called. You are not called generically. You are called by name. When you're baptized, the celebrant doesn't say "I baptize you..." No, rather, you are called by name and then baptized. As Pope Saint John Paul II taught: as Christians, we have one vocation: follow Christ. Then the question becomes how does the Lord call you to follow him? In what state of life do you live your Christian vocation? Priesthood, religious life, either in a contemplative or active order, through the sacrament of matrimony, as a single person, or, who knows, maybe even as a deacon.
Jesus Christ is the gate to the Kingdom of God. You enter God’s kingdom through the cross of Christ. Anyone who enters God’s kingdom does so through him in some way, even if that way is hidden and mysterious, known to God alone.
As our Lord tells the Pharisees in today’s Gospel: “I came so that they [his followers- us] might have life and have it more abundantly.”8 My friends, worldly success is fleeting, even when it lasts until death, and you live to be a hundred. Following Jesus is the path to true glory.
On this glorious Easter Day, taking our cue from Saint Peter, let us hearken back to Ash Wednesday, when, as we received ashes, and were invited to “Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”9
1 Acts 2:38.↩
2 1 Timothy 1:8.↩
3 1 Timothy 1:9.↩
4 Romans 2:15.↩
5 Galatians 3:24-26. ↩
6 1 Peter 2:20.↩
7 1 Peter 2:21.↩
8 John 10:10.↩
9 Roman Missal. Ash Wednesday.↩
No comments:
Post a Comment