Sunday after Ascension 2022

I saw a very silly car commercial recently while

I was watching basketball playoffs. It was for

a Jeep, Jeep Wrangler or a Jeep Cherokee, something

like that. Of course, you have to picture the

usual scene, right? A Jeep going up impossibly

steep paths through the snow on a mountain, racing

through a desert. making its way through the

woods or on the beach and the water spraying

everywhere. The usual type of crazy, impractical

ways in which you can use up your $6 a gallon

gas. And as if most of us are ever going to drive

in those situations with that kind of vehicle.

And the narrator says, do you want to follow

a well -marked path? Or, big pause, be born free.

Rebellion against the path, so to say. Make your

own way. You know, spiritually, that's usually

delusional. St. Paul warned his flock of savage

wolves, which will come in among you, not sparing

the flock, also from among yourselves. Men will

rise up speaking perverse things to draw away

the disciples after themselves. Now perhaps you

think that commercial is a bit, I'm making things

a little too dramatic. But it's an approach and

it's a mindset of how we are deeply influenced.

The kind of rebellion that's being offered to

us in these expensive vehicles. by our media

and our culture now, is marketed. It's not a

rebellion. It's something to make money by others.

The morals, the mores, the ideas, the ethics

are all marketed to us. Here is the serpent's

temptation in the garden of paradise over and

over again from Genesis. For God knows in the

day you eat of the fruit from the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil, your eyes will be

open and you will be like gods, knowing good

and evil. Recreate yourself. Be your own god.

Know good and evil, but the problem is you can't

tell the difference sometimes. You're lost between

the two. Christ prayed, and this is eternal life,

that they may know thee, the only true God, and

Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Our identity,

therefore, to use a modern word, as humans, like

truly human, is not in our feelings, not in this

media -presented If we could acquire this, then

we'll have something really wonderful. Not in

some kind of inner rebellion against our own

human nature, which is definitely being marketed

to us. Our true identity is found and eventually

formed by being in Christ. This is eternal life

that they may know thee. the only true God, and

Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. This is not

an ideology. Because faith is not something mental

that we think about. I have strong faith. I've

really grasped it in my mind. It's there and

it's not going to be shaken. That's just in the

mind. Faith is living out those words to know

the Father. and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent,

and to know ourself. We can say that Jesus Christ,

the Son of God, became what we are in order to

make us what he is. He became what we are to

make us share in what he is. And if I believe

that, and I act in faithfulness, I carry forward

my life in action, not just in some kind of intellectual

ascent to an idea. If I believe that with my

heart and my soul, with action, that Jesus Christ

is indeed the Son of God, as we say in the creed

of one essence with the Father. Hearing our nature

too. Today is the Sunday of the Holy Fathers.

The creed that we recite, those words come from

that day. if we truly believe that, it means

that I look at the world, I look at myself, I

see my neighbor, through the lens of Christ's

compassion, through the lens of Christ's humility,

through the lens of Christ's love for us, the

love of the cross that he expressed on the cross.

Then I respond as Christ would. I'd walk that

extra mile, as Jesus said, to do it, the person

that asks. Walk that extra mile. I'd give my

coat, because I don't need two, to the person

that needs one. I'd see the poor person as the

least of these, my brethren. Everything that

I would do would be not just an act of... Different

ethics, New Testament ethics, but a sharing in

the light of light of God's kingdom. And being

called by Christ's name, which some people are

ashamed of these days, to be called Christian,

is an honor beyond all created honor. Bestowing

not just human worth on us, but divine worth

on a vessel of clay. Last week, We read about

Jesus Christ taking dirt and spit. It reminds

us what we're made of, dust from the earth, but

God's breath poured into that. This is the ultimate

meaning of our existence, to be known by God

as like him. The ultimate goal of our time on

this world. And believing this, that Jesus is

light of light, true God of true God, and that

we are joined to him, that we are united to him

who sits on the throne next to the Father, believing

that changes everything in our life, everything

we do. And at that point, we see that if it doesn't

involve Christ, we're wasting our time. If you're

going to love God, then love him. Truly love

him with all your heart, your mind, your strength.

Why? Not because Jesus said so only, but because

human nature is such that if you don't love God

with all your heart, your mind, your soul, and

your strength, and he exists before us, then

you're going to be loving something else with

all that energy, and it will disappoint you.

And it will be idolatry because it isn't the

one true God. You may say, or some may say, well,

what's wrong with that? I have other things that

I need to love. What's wrong is that we are human

and only truly and fully human in Christ when

we identify ourselves with Christ and not the

jargon of this world, especially about human

nature. Brothers and sisters, there's an attack

on our human nature, if you haven't noticed.

We should be extremely vigilant. We are children

of the gospel, children of the scripture. Get

back to that. To contradict that TV commercial

about the Jeep Cherokee, we are not born free.

We are born yoked to death. By sin. And afflicted

by sin. Our path to freedom is Christ. One saint

said, I can't remember what he said. The path

is with the cross. Because no one enters the

kingdom of heaven in comfort. He's the way, the

truth, and the life, as he said. Not as an idea.

No, we stand before that reality. The way is

a reality. We go a certain direction. The truth

is something we grasp. It's not just a thought.

The life is something we live. And we stand before

those things. for Christ who is our life, light

of light, true God of one essence with the Father.

And we let him draw out of us sin and doubt.

We let him draw out of us fear and uncertainty

and weakness and anxiety. And we let him, as

he says, share his glory with us to be one. Even

as he and the Father is one, we become one with

Christ. You can't do that part -time. And you

can't do that without a well -worn path. This

is what the church is giving us today on the

commemoration of the Holy Fathers, of the First

Ecumenical Council, as the church at the beginning

stood between the day of the ascension of Christ

and the coming of the Holy Spirit. We also await

that feast day, and we await the coming of God

in glory. Amen.