I hope that you all had a great spring break and enjoyed much rest and relaxation. We had an excellent week of service down in Charleston, South Carolina. Fun, too! (BettAYYY!) We jump right back into everything this week, and so I want to let you know about a cool talk on Tuesday night by a good priest friend of mine, Father Carter Griffin. He is wicked smart! He studied at Princeton and Rome, and wanted to speak to you all on “a hard topic”, as he said. So, I’ve asked him to prove the existence of God. That’s hard! He will make the case for God’s existence and probably point to the universe, nature, or ourselves. I know many of you struggle to know that God is really there, so this will help you, I promise. Also, invite your friends who would benefit from it. It will be on Tuesday night after dinner and Mass which begins at 5:30 pm.
We can know in our minds that God exists. The first Vatican Council told us this. Reason tells us THAT God exists. Faith tells us WHO God is. When we get into the person of Jesus Christ, for example, then we get into the things of faith. It takes faith to believe that Jesus rose from the dead and that He is the Son of God. In order for someone to believe in Jesus, they have to know His story. If He is God, then why did He come into the world? What was the point of all of it? A line from our second reading helps immensely to understand Christ and the point of His story: “he destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”. This is a hard-hitting line from St. Paul letter to Timothy. He brought life and immortality!
To understand this better, let me ask you a question that some of you have heard before: how many people went to Heaven before Christ? Zero. Between Adam and Eve and Jesus Christ, no one died and went to Heaven. Why? Because of Original Sin. Adam and Eve committed the first sin and it was devastating to mankind. When God created them, He told them to enjoy the paradise He had give them. He told them they could do whatever they wanted, just not to eat the fruit of the tree. So, they were loving life in the garden of Eden, happy as can be, and not even noticing that they were naked. But, then, the devil got involved and tempted them to eat the fruit of the tree. This was the one thing that God said NOT to do! This caused a major rift in their relationship with God. (By the way, all of the details from this story don’t have to be taken literally, but we do need to believe in Original Sin).
Imagine being in a relationship with someone you love dearly. They make very clear to you that there is one thing that they hate and ask you not to do it – maybe it’s getting high or lying. Whatever it is, it is seriously wrong to them, you know it’s seriously wrong to them, and if you choose to do it, you will seriously offend them. You will seriously hurt your relationship with them. This is what Adam and Eve did. They seriously offended God and they knew it. As soon as they ate the apple, they were filled with guilt and shame and noticed that they were naked. The gates of heaven closed. For hundreds of years after that, the people of God tried to atone for their sins through offerings and sacrifices, but none could open the gates of Heaven. We don’t have the power to bring about the forgiveness of our sins – only God does.
So, God became one of us and offered Himself as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. We will hear in a few minutes at the Consecration, “this is my body…this is my blood…shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven”. Christ died for you and for me…for our sins to be forgiven. His sacrifice on the Cross is the only acceptable sacrifice to the Father for the forgiveness of sins. His Death and Resurrection opened the gates of Heaven. It is through the Cross that we are saved. It is through the Cross that Christ brought immortality to us. Christ entered into our immorality and planted a T-shaped Cross in it. Through Christ and His Cross, we go from immorality to immorTality.
This gives us a very brief look at the story of Jesus Christ and should fill us with great joy that we are in the right place if we want to get to Heaven. It is here at Mass that we not only remember the act of our salvation, we participate in it! Peter says it all at the Transfiguration, “Lord, it is good that we are here”. It is good that we are here. It is good that you are here. I love that you are here. God loves that you are here. Please keep coming!
It is good whenever we come to the Cross, but it is tough. I was a junior in college when I first entered into all of this stuff. It was tough because I had so many serious sins going on at the time. What I realized is that Christ saw all of my sins from the Cross, and basically said, “Greg, I will die for your sins to be forgiven”. He says that to each one of you, too. I know that everything I am saying to you tonight is tough and a bit intimidating. God knows this, too. He says many, many times in Scripture (including tonight’s Gospel), “do not be afraid”. Do not be afraid! Do not be afraid to come to Christ. Do not be afraid to come to the Cross. Do not be afraid to go from immorality to immortality. Do not be afraid to be Catholic on this campus. Do not be afraid to come to Mass. Do not be afraid to invite another GW Catholic to Mass. Do not be afraid to go to Confession. Do not be afraid to come to the Newman Center. Do not be afraid to love Christ and let Him love you this Lent.
He says about each one of you, ‘this is my beloved son’…or ‘this is my beloved daughter’. He says to each one of you tonight, “rise, and do not be afraid”.
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