On Christian Morality Fr. James Jorgenson

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory be to Jesus Christ.

Today's epistle and gospel are very instructive

for us, but before we get into that, we should

mention that this is also an important Saints'

Day. And kids, who is Jesus' grandma? Anna. That's

right. Joachim and Anna were Mary's parents and

Jesus' grandparents. And today we celebrate what's

called the repose of Anna. In other words, this

is the day that Mary's mother completed her earthly

life. And it is a tradition in the church that

a saint's day is not the saint's birthday. in

this world, but the saint's birthday in eternity,

because that is what the irony of death is. It's

not an end to life. It's a translation from one

form of existence into a much richer and deeper

and joyous form of life. So this is to repose

the entrance into eternal life of Saint Anna,

Mary's mother and Jesus' grandmother. And of

course, those names are familiar because you

hear them mentioned at the dismissal prayer through

the prayers of the holy ancestors of God, Joy,

Kim, and Anna. Today's gospel, though, is certainly

a strange one. Among many priests, it's sort

of a tradition to... when they're talking with

the priest, either right before this Sunday or

right after this Sunday, they'll say, oh, we

have swine Sunday or pig Sunday coming up. What

are you going to say about that? Or what did

you say about pig Sunday last week? And to some

people, it might seem that there's very little

story or purpose in here. But quite to the contrary,

what this event illustrates is how unnatural,

how unnatural sin and evil are for human beings.

The man who is possessed by evil, by demons,

when he was cured by Jesus and the demons were

driven out, They asked Jesus to send them somewhere

else into the herd of swine. And when that happened,

it drove those pigs crazy. They became suicidal.

They rushed off a steep bank and drowned themselves.

So to be possessed by evil, by evil spirits,

is that illustrates how unnatural that is. Pigs

couldn't stand it, drove them crazy. But human

beings, ironically, we can be possessed by evil

and sin and act as if it's just sort of normal

form of behavior. I think this is illustrated

in our contemporary society because there's been

such a... in some quarters, an abandonment of

traditional Judeo -Christian morality, behavior,

especially between man and woman and the sacredness

of marriage. And in addition to this, how natural

it seems for people to say that abortion is a

morally neutral. There's no moral consideration.

It's just something you can do if it's convenient

or not. And the idea that this is actually the

killing and the murder of an unborn human being,

a baby, in the protectiveness of the womb, that

for some people it just doesn't hit home to them.

that our society and some people can condone

these departures from the Ten Commandments with

sexual immorality and with abortion. So it's

an opportunity for us to pray that the understanding

of the Ten Commandments and traditional Judeo

-Christian morality, which... codifies normal,

natural human behavior. Even societies that did

not have the benefit of the Ten Commandments

and divine revelation knew they had a glimpse

of what proper human conduct is about. So that

it brings us also to a consideration of what

is natural. Now, I'm sure that you've heard the

expression, supernatural life. That if you pray

and come into communion with God, it's supernatural

life. But there's a validity in looking at it

that way. But I think a more authentic and a

more ancient way of looking at this is that to

be in communion with God, is natural. It's not

supernatural. God created man and woman to be

in communion with God. That is what is natural

for us, to be out of communion with God, to be

controlled by sin and evil, as this unfortunate

man was in today's gospel. This is unnatural.

So it's two different ways of looking at one

reality. The preferable one, I believe, which

is in patristic tradition fundamentally, that

it's natural for us to be in communion with God.

To be out of communion with God is inhuman. God

created our first parents to be in communion

with him. That is what is natural for us. And

Jesus came into the world not to offer us so

much supernatural life or supernatural relationship

with God, but rather to restore us to what is

authentically human, authentically natural for

us, to be in love with God, to be in communion

with God. In line with this, there's one verse

in today's epistle that I've always thought really

encapsulates the gospel. It encapsulates the

Christian message. I don't know if you really

caught it, but I'm sure when I repeat it, you'll

say, oh yeah. St. Paul says near the end of his

epistle to the Romans, He says, if you confess

with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you

believe in your heart that God raised him from

the dead, you will be saved. That, my friends,

is the Christian message. That is the gospel

right there. This was also really the earliest

profession of faith. When someone turned to Jesus,

all they had to do was say, Jesus is Lord, make

that affirmation, and that was sufficient to

be baptized. Of course, there were instructions

that were carried on as well. But that's the

fundamental turning point of a human being, to

confess with our mouth, Jesus is Lord. and also

to believe firmly in our heart what is the goal

of our human life, to have eternal life, life

in communion with God, and believe in your heart

that God raised him from the dead, you will be

saved. So the belief in Jesus as Lord, not just

an earthly Lord, but the heavenly divine Lord,

of the universe, that Jesus is Lord, and he's

the Lord of my life. And to believe that he has

given us a pathway from this world into eternity,

this is salvation. And as I said at the very

beginning, one of the many saints who have shown

us the way after the Lord Jesus himself with

his resurrection. that they have left this world

and gone into eternal life and eternal happiness,

which was their goal and is our goal. So let

us live as naturally as possible in this world,

being in communion with God, rejecting everything

possible that is sinful and unnatural to us.

to live an authentic human life of communion

with God. Tertullian said, in conclusion, Tertullian

has a very famous, he was a, he lived about,

flourished about the year 200, theologian in

North Africa. He referred to human beings as,

that the human soul, he says, anima naturaliter,

Christiana. The human soul is naturally Christian.

So Christianity, belief in Jesus, belief in his

resurrection from the dead, is our restoration

to natural life in preparation for the life to

come. Amen.