30th Sun OT-C’16
October 23, 2016
St. Bernadette
What does it mean to be created in the image of God? I know what it means for parents… through your kids you see yourself in tiny proportions. After awhile you start to realize you see yourself in your kids’ actions too (and this is scary). But what does God see of God’s Self in us? (Not physical features… God is beyond our finite bodies.) I think God sees FREEDOM. Freedom is God’s image within us.
All of humanity is created in God’s image; all of humanity has the stamp of freedom upon its soul. But there is more to us who are baptized… we are grafted to Jesus Christ; joined to the Body of Christ, and this makes all the difference in the world. We join ourselves to Christ so we might, through our use of freedom, shape ourselves into Christ’s image. As individuals we shape ourselves into Christ’s image through our choices.
Many of us could, like the Pharisee, readily list the sins of other individuals (greed, dishonesty, adultery). We could celebrate our good choices to not participate in these actions. (And good use of our freedom should be celebrated.) But the Pharisee makes one big mistake. The Pharisee assumes (as did all of ancient Israel) that in order to keep the collective body pure one must cast out the sinner. (Stone adulterers, kill criminals, “it is better for one to die than for all to be made impure.”)
Jesus Christ takes an opposite approach. Jesus Christ draws close to the sinner in order to reconcile him or her back into the collective body. (Ate with sinners, forgave sin, sought the marginalized and outsider.)
Here is the Pharisee’s sin. He celebrates that he is separate from the tax collector, when he should instead celebrate the sinner’s repentance. The Pharisee celebrates his separation from the other, and this separates him from God. The tax collector, on the other hand, unties himself to God through his contrition and goes home that day justified. One mirrored Christ and one did not.
While preparing a class for some seventh and eighth graders this week I read something that theologian John Shea once wrote, “Each of us is a story God is telling about himself.” This resonates with me. It makes me ask, what is God revealing about himself to others through the story that is me? Collectively we the baptized make up the Body of Christ in the world. What is God revealing about himself to others through the story that is us?
The next 16 days of our national political process do not hold much potential for being civil. It can be difficult to find the image of Christ in any of it. Its a big mess! And for many of us this is frustrating because it is not in our control. But on Friday at our daily Mass we heard a scripture from St. Paul that shows us something we can control… our own heart.
Ephesians 4: “Never let evil talk pass your lips; say only the good things men need to hear, things that will really help them. Do nothing that will sadden the Holy Spirit with whom you were sealed against the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, all passion and anger, harsh words, slander, and malice of every kind. In place of these , be kind to one another, compassionate, and mutually forgiving, just as God has forgiven you in Christ.”
I encourage you to bring Christ into your worlds in the coming days by tending to your hearts. Let God’s story be told well through our free actions, and may the peace of Christ, entrusted to us, enfold us and our nation.
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