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Browsing Father Michael Deering's Sunday Homilies

Our God is Holy and Just!

Our God is Holy and Just!
Homily originally presented March 7, 2021
by Monsignor Deering

 

There may be some truth to the statement that several people make ...

about what they’re hearing preached in their church on Sunday.

 

Whether they’re Catholic or Protestant, a good many people will tell you ...

that their Priest or minister doesn’t talk very much about sin anymore!

 

They say that in the old days, it was common to hear homilies & sermons about sin

and about the consequence of sin ... which is Hell-Fire and Brimstone.

 

Those homilies got people’s attention ... and got them thinking about their actions

and got them to think twice about doing something sinful.

 

But lately, many say that all they seem to be hearing in church is that they need to pray more for the things they want and God who is all good will give it to them!

 

This comes from preachers like Joel Osteen, Pastor of Lakewood ... the Houston Texas mega-church … with the big turning globe in the background.

 

He’s one of several preachers who deliver inspiring messages

of self-help and self-improvement and rarely if ever do they speak of sin.

 

What do they speak about? Their message is a message of health and wealth!

 

For example, the web lists that Joel Osteen’s message from last Sunday was:

 

God knows what you’re owed. He’s storing up the blessing.

when He releases it, it’s going go catapult you ahead.

 

What’s the message?

 

God is good … and He wants you to have all these nice things …

and if you don’t have them then I guess you’re just not praying enough,

because all you have to do is pray more and you’ll get everything you want. 

 

This is simply a matter of telling people what they want to hear

instead of what they need to hear.

 

Another popular message people hear in church is the one about God being kind and merciful and therefore we just know that He’s going to take care of us no matter what we do.  It’s a soothing message that makes people feel comfortable in their sin.

 

 

 

Is God good?  Is God generous?   Yes! and Yes!

Is God kind  Is God merciful?    Yes! and Yes!

 

God is all of that and more.

And the more includes the fact that God is also holy and God is also just!

 

The book of Revelation declares:  “Nothing unclean will enter into Heaven.”

 

That means 1st ... that we must be holy in order to be with God in Heaven.

   and 2nd ... that God is going to hold us to this standard for entry.

 

What is it that makes us unclean?    

Sin!      The turning away from the law and the love of God!

 

There is nothing unclean in the Father’s House.

Which is why Jesus got so upset with the people in today’s Gospel.

 

They were profaning the Father’s House on earth … the Holy Temple of Jerusalem.

So, Jesus drove them out saying, “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.”

 

What was it that was inside the Temple of Jerusalem? The Holy Word of God

 

There, behind the veil, in the inner sanctuary, in what was called the Holy of Holies, was Pentateuch ... the first Five Books of the Bible that had been written by the Jews during the 50 years of their Babylonian Exile.

There ... in the Book of Exodus and Leviticus were the Ten Commandments.

 

The Ten Commandments are the moral law of God given to Moses

some 1200 years before Jesus ... to guide the Chosen People to Holiness.

 

The whole purpose of the Ten Commandments was to bring awareness of sin!

 

St. Paul referred to this in his letter to the Romans writing that ...

up to the time of the Ten Commandments, sin was in the world ...

though sin is not accounted when there is no law.

 

So, God gave his people the Ten Commandments ... so that they

would know without a doubt that obeying them would preserve them in Holiness

and that breaking them would separate them in sin.

 

We just heard the Ten Commandments proclaimed in our First Reading from Exodus.

 

These Ten Commandments of God still apply    to all of us ... today!

 

 

Now, in order to be sure we honor them and not break them, we need to know them.

 

So if you can’t list all of God’s 10 Commandments from memory

perhaps you could spend some time with this passage from Exodus 20

either here in Church or at home to refresh yourself in God’s law.

 

Ignorance of God’s law is no excuse for not following the law.

 

It’s just like when you get pulled over by the Police for speeding … you can tell the Policeman … “I didn’t know the speed limit”but that isn’t going to help!

If you’re driving, you’re supposed to know the speed limit on the road you’re driving

and ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking the law.

Ignorance is no excuse.”

 

It’s the same with God. As members of His family, we’re supposed to be familiar with His laws.     Breaking them and then claiming,   “I didn’t know!”

     isn’t going to get us off the hook.      “Ignorance is no excuse.”

 

The 1st Commandment that God gives us is to keep Him #1.

He says, “I am the Lord, your God, You shall have no other gods before me.”

Having just been freed from Egyptian rule where they honored many gods. God wanted them to know that He is the only God and is worthy of all love & attention.

 

But in our weakness & sinfulness ...  we often make ... people or things ... into gods and in doing so ... we steal away from Him ...

the attention and affection that is rightfully His.

 

Yes, we steal attention away from God in so many different ways.

One common way that people do it is simply by not going to Church on Sunday.

 

This is very important to God.

So important, that He emphasized it in His 3rd Commandment declaring,

“Keep holy the Lord’s Day.”

 

The primary way that we do that is by gathering together in Community ...

in His House ... every Sunday ... to give Him praise and worship.

 

And yet there are many who don’t do this!

 

You know, 4 weeks from today it will be Easter Sunday ... and before Covid,

this church would filled to capacity on the day of Easter!

But the rest of the Sundays of the year?    No.  

“How come?”   Where are all God’s people?

 

 

They’re not here because something else is more important than God

either sleeping or working or fishing or playing sports or doing something else.

 

Let me be real clear about this missing Mass is a mortal sin!

The only situations that remove the obligation are when you are sick or injured.

 

Now, for the past year, by Dispensation from the Bishop ...

everyone’s had permission to view Holy Mass virtually,

either on TV or Internet, and not incur sin.

 

Yet people don’t even do that, simply view Mass from home any hour of Sunday.

 

Our attention and our affection is to be directed first and foremost to Him …

and when we give them to something else we’re stealing them away from God.

 

This is unacceptable to God as we heard him say in our reading from Exodus,

“I the Lord your God am a jealous God.”

Giving attention to something other than God is giving attention to a false god!

 

Is there anything in your lives that is stealing time and attention away from God? 

If so, then you have your priorities out of order.

 

God wants to be #1 in your life and rightfully so.

We depend on Him for everything we have.

He is the source of all that we have and all that we are.

He is Godthere is no other!

 

Jesus drove the Money-changers out of the Temple because ...

          they preferred the riches of God ... to a relationship with God!

 

God wants us to have relationship ... with Him ... and with one another.

And the way we keep our relationships is by obeying God’s Ten Commandments.

The First Three govern our relationship with God;

the Last Seven govern our relationship with one another.

 

God commands us today, you shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not lie, you shall not use my name in vain, you shall not covet.

 

Let’s use this Lenten Season to honestly assess our relationship with God & others.

 

Sin spoils those relationships!    Certainly now ... and possibly forever.

 

How about that?      An old fashion homily about sin!

 

 

I hope you take this to heart … it’s serious business!

 

Sin will keep you out of Heaven  ... apart from God forever …

“For Nothing unclean will enter into Heaven.”

 

Remember ... our God is holy ...

     and our God is just.

 

Ignorance is no excuse because He has clearly revealed to us how we are to act!

 

In Psalm 19 that we prayed today, the Psalmist declares:

The command of the Lord is clear,

The ordinances of the Lord are true,

All of them just.”

 

Let’s draw near to God:

by faithfully attending Mass every Sunday

by regularly going to Confession

by worthily receiving Holy Communion

by praying every day

and during Lent ... by Fasting and giving Alms.

 

 

Let’s preserve ourselves from sin ... by obeying God’s Commandments.

 

 

It’s the only way we’ll remain clean ... and permitted to enter into Heaven!

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