THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals Second Sunday after Pentecost 10 June 2012

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friends,

How strange it is that God must invite us to come to Him! It seems that we should naturally run to Him. Our very nature should compel us to seek Him and follow Him even before an invitation is ever sent.

It is the effects of sin that has darkened our eyes so as not to see or desire our greatest good – God. Sin has left us wandering in darkness. We are as the blind leading the blind. We form false ideas of what the light might be and search for it in all the wrong places. Many even mistake the darkness they are in for light because they can see or know nothing of the true light.

The Son of God has come, sent by the Father, to invite us to the supper of light and truth. Many have refused to come because they have grown comfortable in the darkness of sin. Each gave a superficial worldly reason for his unwillingness to go to the supper guised as an inability to attend. There is customarily the proviso at the end of each inexcusable excuse to please “hold them excused.”

Sin comes in many forms – though all sin is turning away from God. There is the concupiscence of the eyes, the concupiscence of the flesh, and the pride of life. Each of these categories present themselves to us today in the excuses given by those in the Gospel.

“I have bought a farm” represents all those who are eager with curiosity to see and know the things of this earth and are content to remain blind to the things of God. The farm is not going anywhere. We can see it at any time. We must seek first the Kingdom of Heaven. The farm itself is a gift from God and it was given to us so that we might draw closer to God, not so that it might become an obstacle to Him. How perversely we now use God’s own gifts against Him!

“I have bought five yoke of oxen” represent the pride we take in ruling or controlling the things of this earth. This foolish pride makes us think of ourselves as rulers. A vanity ensues that is very hard to ever remove. Today it might be the pride in our automobiles, technology, etc.

“I have married a wife” shows us all those consumed with the concupiscence of the flesh. The passions and lusts of our bodies blind us to the light and overpower and consume us so that we lose all self-control. These sins become all consuming and relentlessly bear us down. Our intellects become soiled and dull, as we look for light and happiness in darkness and filth.

These are the broad categories that encompass all the sins or excuses of mankind which keep us from heeding the invitation and thus ever seeing the true light and tasting the true joys of heaven.

Christ’s parables are given to us not to entertain us, or even to just instruct us. Rather, we should become motivated to change our lives. They are designed to move our wills to that which is true, right and good. Profound truths are presented in a simple manner so that we can grasp them even in the darkness of our sins. With glimpses into the truth we make use of the opportunity to see ourselves and turn away from darkness and seek out the light.

We have reached the opposite extreme as was present in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. They knew the Light and Goodness but did not know darkness and sin. Men today, on the other hand, know darkness and sin, but do not know Light and Goodness. Adam and Eve came to know darkness and sin through doubt and disobedience; we must come to know Light and Goodness through faith, and obedience. We must believe Jesus who speaks the truth to us and we must obey or hear and follow His invitation to the Supper of Light, Truth, and Goodness. Through Faith and obedience we can turn away from the ignorance and darkness of sin and enter into the wisdom and Light of Grace.

Men will never know the true pleasures and joys that God offers them unless they renounce the only joys they now imagine that they know. This requires Faith and obedience to God. Let us make that loving act of Faith and obedience to God and renounce the false pleasures of sin that we have grown attached to so that through Faith we may obtain the eternal joys of the Heavenly Banquet.