Bible
Study: Romans 6, 12 to 18. And Luke 12, 39 to 48.
In our
first reading this morning, St. Paul admonishes us to see sin for what it
really is. Sin is like a poor beggar who comes to your window asking for a tiny
loaf of bread. At first you drive him away but he returns and demands for your
sympathy. Gradually, you begin to think twice about him, then one day you let
him have a tiny particle of bread. The moment he receives it, he jumps with
gladness but he tells you first to open the window so he can collect it. Still
feeling sorry for him, you not only open the window, you even open the door as
well and before you know it, sin takes over your house. From being a miserable
beggar, sin begins to control your entire household. And each time you try to
drive it away, he makes you understand that you can no longer survive without
him. In fact, he uses you to a point you become its slave, you obey his
commands and run nasty errands for him. You know what you are doing is wrong
and you are not fulfilled by so doing, yet you do not seem to know any way out.
Brethren,
St. Paul says, “Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies… do not yield your
members to sin as instrument, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been
brought from death to life.” That is to say, the only way to drive sin away is
not by fighting with him, it is simply by inviting another master into your
house. Let this second master do the fighting on your behalf and I bet you, sin
will run as fast as he can away from you.
Give your
body to Jesus, welcome him wholeheartedly into your heart. Use your body to
serve Jesus. Dedicate your lips which were once used to sin only to telling the
truth, reading the Bible and talking about God. Dedicate your hands only for
carrying out good acts, dedicate your legs only to walk into places that are
holy and so on. And each time you face a temptation, remind sin that he is no
longer in charge of your body. Be like a child who quickly runs to his mummy
each time he senses danger in the house. Let every temptation lead you to dropping
down on your knees to pray. As such, Satan becomes frustrated as each
temptation he sends becomes a sort of reminder to prayer and even a greater
devotion on your part to God.
Although
we are no longer under the law but under the grace of God, we must not let sin
reign at all in our bodies. The meaning of this is that, we are not justified
by the law but by the grace of God. That is, it is not our avoidance of sin
that determines how much God loves us, or how much God ranks us. God continues
to love us no matter what and it is not by our efforts that we become saved. If
it were to be by our efforts, then there would have been no need for Jesus to
die on the cross. Now, even though it is not by our efforts, but by the
unmerited favour of God, we are not to allow sin rule us. We are to avoid sin
not to justify ourselves by so doing, not to bribe God for favours, not to
appear great like the Pharisee who came to pray before God saying he is better
than the rest of men, but we avoid sin because we are not slaves to sin.
God
designed us in such a way that we always have a master. We are never fully in
charge of ourselves, we are always being ruled by the master we chose to obey. “Do
you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedience slaves, you
are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of
obedience, which leads to righteousness?”
Ever
wondered why the Blessed Virgin Mary could live a totally sinless life? How did
she do it? How did she stay all through, never had other kids, not got involved
with a man, never did or said anything wrong? The answer is that she made
herself a slave to one master; God. She revealed the secret of her sinlessness
when she said: “I am the handmaid of the Lord…” and in another place she said “My
soul magnifies the Lord … for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.”
Luke 1, 46 to 48.
Do you
notice how slaves tend to quickly imbibe the attitudes of their master? Once they
love their master, they start behaving like him and they become loyal to him. If
we can easily become loyal to sin and we keep going back to it again and again,
how much more are we capable of becoming loyal to the God who created us, how
much more are we capable of performing righteous deeds, how much more are we
capable of growing in virtue? Do you notice that every time you resist a sin,
the stronger you instantly become against that very sin and the harder it
becomes for you to return to it? Don’t you know that you can actually grow
spiritually to a point where the very thought of sin become completely alien to
you?
If Jesus
is in charge of your mortal body, he would keep strengthening you every day and
he would continue filling you with more strength, more power, more wisdom and
more love of him to avoid sin. But left to your flesh alone, left to your
will-power alone, you would just keep rolling in sin. This homily is an
eye-opener, if you have been patient enough to read it all to this point, then
be aware that God has given you a secret weapon to stamp sin out of your life
and not very many persons will have the privilege of learning what you have just
read. So now you have the key. Remember that as Jesus said in today’s Gospel
passage: “To whom much is given, much is expected.”
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, I want you to be the Lord and Master of my life, come in today and rid
me of all addictions, vices, sinful inclinations, people and situations that
have kept me stuck in sin. Rule me, change me and may I be your slave only and
live according to your wishes. Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you.
No comments:
Post a Comment