6th Sunday after Epiphany Resumed
Beloved in the Lord, in the year 404AD there lived a holy monk named Telemachus. He was a hermit of the desert, a man of prayer, but at one point he felt that God wanted him to go to Rome. There, the gladiator games were continuing – the source of blood-lust and evil in which people reveled. The Catholic faith was by this time, legal, but it was evident that many were still living pagan lives.
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When Telemachus saw the horror of the gladiator games, men fighting each other and killing each other to the roar of the crowd – he was horrified. He jumped from his seat right into the arena, and stood between the gladiators. He was tossed aside, but he went back again, and then a sword appeared – and then he was dead. The massive crowd suddenly stood silent: A holy man was dead. Something happened that day in Rome, because after that day, there were never again, any more gladiator games.
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Friends in Christ, Jesus speaks today by way of parables, of the effects that our one, little life can have. The tiny mustard seed seems insignificant, but it becomes a huge tree. and yeast by itself, seems trivial, but it produces a great effect.
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Most of us will not be Senators or Presidents or St. Paul’s or Padre Pio’s; we are ordinary people; yet as people of faith, we believe that each of our lives, lived fully for Christ, possesses an enormous capacity to influence this world. This is the irony of the life of a cloistered nun for example: ‘What good is their life?’, the world asks. A young woman, Veronica Payne from our own parish, made her temporary vows last month – cloistered life. But we know, and she knows, that the life of grace, although hidden, has great effects.
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Who affects the world more, the CEO of General Motors, or the mother, who is daily teaching her children, to be God-fearing? The Statesman in the halls of congress, or a nun? This is what Our Lord is showing us today; just as a little yeast is placed in the dough – you can’t even see it when it is mixed in – yet it leavens the whole mass, it produces quite an effect. Our Lord is saying that there must be no discouragement, his followers must serve, each in his place, doing his own part. As it is said, Paul planted, Apollos watered, but it is God who gives the growth.
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Masters of the spiritual life have noticed that the more our lives are hidden in humility, the more effective they can be. St. Josemaria urges us to ‘hide and disappear.’ “Don’t wish to be like the gold weather-vane on top of a great building: however much it shines it adds nothing to the strength of the building. Rather be like an old stone block hidden in the foundation, underground, where no one can see you: because of you the house will not fall.”
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Generally, we each underestimate how much God can do with our life, even if, and especially if, our actions are hidden. Dom Chautard wrote a whole book on this subject: The Soul of the Apostolate. His point which, appears on every page, is that it is not a flurry of activity and constant busyness that will build God’s kingdom; our actions must be based on a real interior life; prayer must be the foundation for us, and then our work will flourish and bring many results.
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Our Lord wants us to be the catalyst for good in our own circle of influence. And we do this by daily prayer, and choosing the path of holiness and humility at every step. We don’t know where each step will lead us, but God does. A group of young people from many nations were discussing different methods whereby missionaries could spread the gospel. And then a girl from Africa spoke: ‘When we want to take the faith to another village, we don’t have methods or systems. We send a Christian family to live in that village, and they make the village Christian by living there.’
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We have to have our methods and our institutions to spread the faith, for sure; but it nearly always comes down to each person’s silent life which becomes a cause of grace for others. And in this way, the Kingdom of God grows, imperceptibly.
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Our Lord tells of the mustard seed. A mustard seed is so tiny – 500 of them weigh just one gram – but as Christ says, it grows into a veritable tree such that that the birds of the air come and make their nests in it’s branches. The Great Tree is Jesus Christ, and we are to build our nests in his branches, twig by twig by twig.
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St. Frances de Sales says, that in the Castle of a prince, you will find little birds kept in colored cages, and they give pleasure to their master. But God does not cage up birds for pleasure. His birds live in the wild, in nests, and like prayers each day, they sing their praises to God. Birds come from nests, but prayers come from us. And the Lord wants us to live in his arms and build our little nests quietly, constructed of prayers and good works.
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No one should ever underestimate the value of his life or be discouraged; each soul is precious to God, and capable of enormous good.
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Let’s ask Mary then to help us. May this heavenly Mother urge us on, to believe and to know, that our humble lives are really able to bring about great good.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of St. Paul]
Friends in Christ, in the gospel today, Our Lord urges us to ‘pray always.’ How do we pray always? After all, we have work to do, duties to carry out, and God certainly wants us to focus on doing our work well.
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The way that we ‘pray always,’ is to try to keep the Lord in mind all day, to keep the Presence of God, and our great model in this, is the Blessed Virgin.
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In the hymn Stabat Mater, or ‘At the Cross her station keeping’, there is a line that urges us to be like Mary: ‘Make me feel as thou hast felt, make my soul to glow and melt, with the love of Christ my Lord; this was Mary’s heart, glowing with love for her Lord, we must be the same.
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In his letter on the Rosary, Pope St. John Paul II spoke of Mary’s gaze on her Son. She gazed on him in his infancy, during his life, at the cross; but this gaze on Christ was ever-present, even after his Ascension. This must be us. With a gaze on Christ all through the day.
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As Mary, said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord.’ She will help us also, to magnify the Lord in our life, and this is best done by keeping God’s presence in mind all day. The saints often spoke of this:[i] St. Ignatius says, ‘We should keep the presence of God in all things, in our conversations, our walks, our eyes, listening, or thinking, when we are eating and in all we do.’
In writing advice to a young woman, St. Francis de Sales says: ‘In this point I wish you to be most docile: real devotion is found in recollection and in aspirations. It can supply the lack of other prayers, but nothing can take it’s place.’ And here he means keeping the presence of God – ‘recollection’
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The reason we pray in the morning and at the night; the reason we pray at meals and the angelus at noon; we read from a holy book, and the bible, and say our Rosary – all of this is to help us to keep the Presence of God all day. To walk with Christ.
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St. Teresa says that once the Lord has given us this habit of keeping his presence all day, we would not exchange it for all the treasures of the world.
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Mary, help us to make many aspirations, and cultivate this awareness of God’s mighty Presence in us. And this will get us to heaven, which we want the most of all.
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[i] How to Pray always, p. 108, 112
Friends in Christ, many of us know people who are Greek Orthodox, or Ukrainian Orthodox or other Orthodox Christians. These Churches, even though not Catholic, do have the Holy Eucharist and the 7 Sacraments. They are the closest to us of all other Faiths. In fact, if you are traveling, and can’t get to a Catholic Church, you may attend an Orthodox Mass.
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The Orthodox Mass is a different style than ours. The sanctuary is covered with a wall of pictures of saints, and at the Consecration, the priest is inside an enclosure which represents heaven. Our Mass too, in ancient times, had a curtain pulled around the altar. We still require a sanctuary in a Church to be elevated, to signify that we are touching heaven. Still, at our Latin Mass, during the Consecration, the priest whispers the prayers, signifying that he has slipped into heaven, Christ enters heaven to offer his Blood for us.
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In any case, the Orthodox DO have a valid Mass. But what are their Churches missing? They are lacking union with the Holy Father, the Pope. Now the Catholic Church has been working hard the last 20 years to restore our union with the Orthodox, and it may happen in our lifetime.
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This brings us to the Saint of today, St. Josaphat. St. Josaphat was born in Lithuania, nearly 400 years ago (1580.) He was born Orthodox, but he converted to the Catholic Faith. Though he had a good job and the opportunity to marry a pretty girl, he decided to become a monk, and lived an ascetical life at a monastery. He went barefoot in the winter, and did not drink wine or eat meat – He was quite bright, and came to know many languages. Soon, he was elected Bishop, and later Archbishop.
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He worked hard to bring union between the Catholics and the Orthodox. Josaphat brought millions of Orthodox into the Catholic Faith. Those who converted, retained their ancient Liturgy, and these are now called Eastern Rite Catholics. So there are other Rites within the Catholic Church, and one of them, which does celebrate this style of liturgy, is right down the street from us. They are just as much Catholic as we are, merely a different Rite.[i]
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In the days of St. Josaphat many did not want reunion with the Catholic Church, so they planned to kill him. His enemies called him a Papist – ‘Kill the Papist!’, they yelled. They bashed in his head with a rock and shot him. His body was thrown into the river, but miraculously, it floated to the surface with rays of light coming from it. In the end, his murderers repented and became Catholics. St. Josaphat was the first saint of the Eastern Rite churches to be canonized by Rome.
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[i] Sometimes Eastern Rite Catholics ask me to anoint them in the hospital, and that is no problem.
Friends in Christ, today is the Feast of St. Martin of Tours.
St. Martin was born in the year 316 and although his parents were not Christians, the nurse that cared for him taught him about Jesus.[i]
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At age 15, his father, who was a roman soldier, urged him to follow in his footsteps. Martin had a feeling that he was called to something else, but nevertheless he became a soldier. As he went about his duties, although he was not baptized, he found ways to teach others about Christ.
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One day he saw a poor beggar in the cold; no one helped him. he felt that Jesus would want him to do something, so he took out his sword, and cut his cloak in two, giving half to the beggar. That night, Jesus appeared in a dream to Martin; he was wearing half of a cloak and said, ‘Martin, you have clothed me.’ Soon after this, he was baptized into the Faith.
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When his army went to battle, Martin told the general that he preferred to serve Christ. “You’re a coward, they told him. So he was put into prison. But after serving time in prison, he founded a community of monks and sought a life of prayer. The people of the city liked him very much, and they insisted that he become their bishop, and so he was.
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Martin possessed the gift of discerning spirits. Once the devil appeared to him in beautiful, royal clothes, and spoke as if he were Christ. But Martin, recognizing the deceit, replied, “The Lord Jesus Christ never prophesied that He would come in purple robes and royal crown.” The apparition immediately vanished.
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St. Martin of Tours healed people by his prayers, and raised three dead persons to life; also while celebrating Mass a luminous sphere once appeared above his head.
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In the cold November, of 397, St. Martin approached his death, but as he expired, the gloom of Autumn disappeared, and for three days it was as sunny and beautiful as summer. St. Martin is the patron saint of soldiers, which is very appropriate on this Veteran’s day.
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[i] By age 10 he was a catechumen, that is, one who is preparing for baptism.
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Beloved in the Jesus Christ, in the 13th century, Angela of Foligno was a beautiful, wealthy, and vain lady. As a rich man’s wife she lived in luxury. Her passions were expensive clothes, flashy jewels, and extravagant meals. She dressed and acted in ways that provoked envy among women and lust among men. When she was not indulging herself, she spent hours gossiping with her friends.
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But then at one point she did something very bad and started to really have a fear of hell. It was suddenly clear, that she had not been living a real Catholic life. she desperately prayed and asked Gods help and mercy; she went to confession and resolved to begin a new life, and this would lead her on a saintly path; we now call her ‘Blessed Angela Foligno.
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Friends in Christ, not only Angela, but all of us can easily slip into living a lukewarm religion. Because we go through the motions of being Catholic, or say ‘I was brought up Catholic,’ our faith-life can become only a façade.
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In the gospel today, we are shown this striking contrast between the Jewish Scribes and this humble widow who puts her last pennies into the temple treasury. Our Lord is not pleased with those religious leaders, who were living a ‘fake’ religion; they were more concerned with outward appearances and what people thought of them.
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Jesus specifically points his disciples to see that poor woman, who is more generous than all the others; she is more generous because she does not donate to the temple funds out of her surplus, but out of her need. In other words, her heart was in the right place.
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So how could someone end up living a phony religion? Well, the devil does not attack us head-on: for example, he doesn’t try to trick us into becoming a Muslim or something – we wouldn’t do that; instead, he tries to hollow out our faith-life, until we are only doing some outward, religious things – like those Scribes; this way, we will think we are Catholics, but we really are not any more. And there are many people living sinful ways of life who will often say: ‘But I’m a good person!’
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Spiritual blindness can happen very easily, especially if ‘everybody else’ is doing it, or saying it. We always have to ask ourselves, ‘ok, I’m at Mass on Sundays, that’s good, right? But am I really receiving Jesus with love and faith in Holy Communion? Is it clear that I am a follower of Christ on days other than Sunday? On Monday, or Friday, am I known as a Christian, by my behavior?
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A good test for us, is to notice how we behave when we are pressured. What do I say when my peers at work or school criticize a moral teaching of the Church? Do I speak out? What do I say when a girlfriend or boy friend want to do something impure? Do I speak up and lead that person on the path to Christ? When I could get in trouble or be embarrassed, do I lie?
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You’ve probably heard it asked: if you were on trial, would there be enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian? Is there enough evidence that we belong to Jesus?
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There was a guy who generally tried to be a good man, he felt that he followed the Lord; he heard in a sermon that it’s good to sometimes ask others how they see you, to see if you are what you think you are. So, for the heck of it, he one day asked his daughter, ‘Sweetheart, what do you think is the most important thing to your father?’ Now he figured she would say that God is the most important, since he knew that God should be most important; but his daughter said, ‘’Daddy, most important thing for you is Bowling.’ He was crushed. Is that how it looked to her? Was his heart really more captivated by bowling than Jesus?
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Friends, we can easily delude ourselves into thinking that we are faithful Catholics, but we can be deceived; Christ Jesus might not really be the center of our life. St. James in his Epistle says, ‘If anyone thinks he is religious….’ ‘If anyone thinks he is religious – and then he goes on to explain, that one’s religion is in vain – – is worthless, unless we are living it. If we have an evil tongue, if we have no compassion or go along with the false morality of the world,’ he says, our religion is vain.
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There is a tendency for us to keep the Lord – to keep Our Faith – in a kind of convenient box, mostly for Sunday. I go to Mass, I pray at meals, I Confess once a year – there – that takes care of that. That’s the ‘religion-thing.’
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But even if we have given ¾ of our heart to Christ, we are not a Christian, because Jesus wants our life, our whole heart. Angela of Foligno tried to live as a supposed Catholic, but her life did not reflect the gospel, it was a shell of a religion. It took a serious sin to shake her out of her fog, and give her life back to Jesus. Christ says, ‘I wish that you were either hot or cold, but the lukewarm I vomit out of my mouth.’ At least if we are cold – that means, in serious sin – at least then, we might be shocked back into our senses, even for fear of hell. But coasting along in lukewarm Catholicism is not the way to get to heaven at all. Lukewarm Catholics will be sweating it out in the next life – I mean, REALLY sweating it out!
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Let us look back to that poor widow in the gospel today. She gives her last pennies to the temple fund; Jesus says, ‘she has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.’ I was curious about that phrase, ‘her whole livelihood,’ so I looked it up in the Greek – the gospels were written in Greek. That line from Christ is translated different ways. Some bibles say, she put in all she had to live on.’ Another says, ‘she gave her whole living.’ But the greek word is ‘bios’. The first definition of it is not ‘living’ or livelihood, but ‘life.’ So one could really translate this as: ‘she gave all she had, even her whole life.’ This is what we must do to be true Christians. We must give our whole life to Jesus Christ. Not withholding parts; not holding on to our favorite sins. If we want to be alive with his love, we must give our whole life to the Lord, even if we have to suffer for it.
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St. Peter says, if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
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May the Blessed Virgin pray for us; Mary, pray for us, that we will praise God by a true Christian life, and become worthy of the promises of Christ.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of St. Bernadette]
Friends in Christ, today is All soul’s Day. It is the day that we especially pray for those who have died.
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Praying for the dead goes back to the very beginning of the Catholic faith. What were the early Christians doing in the catacombs? Well, the catacombs were cemeteries. So they would gather there around the tombs of loved ones and offer Mass. That’s what they were doing there. It what we are doing today.
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We read in the book of Macabees, that praying for the dead is ‘a good and noble thing.’ Praying for the dead is in scripture and was the belief of early Christians, and the Jews as well. When we make a big transition in life it is not always easy. Going to school for the first time, going away to college; these changes can be difficult. In each transition we must leave some things behind.
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I watched in the seminary, at how my friends and myself, had to accept leaving some things behind. Also, going away to college, my niece became very homesick, it was a difficult transition for her.
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When a man or woman gets married, there is an adjustment period. They realize they have left some things behind. This is part of life. It is part of growing, but it isn’t easy, so we pray for our loved ones who are going through difficult changes in their life.
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The change from this life to the next also represents a transition, and the leaving behind of attachments. So we pray for those who are going through this change which we call purgatory. Those who have been preparing well for the next life, living the gospel, loving others, doing all for the Lord – for them the change is easy, they have few earthly attachments, and they’ll soon be in heaven.
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But for most of us, we are not perfect, and we will need to go through some purification, before we enter heaven. So when those we love are going through this purification we pray for them. And they will thank us very much, and be grateful when we see them.
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This week, the Church offers two ways to gain a Plenary Indulgence for a person in Purgatory. Visit a Church on All Souls Day, and pray the Our Father and the Creed. Also, this week, visit a cemetery and pray any prayer you want for the dead. This week, you can get a plenary indulgence every day that you visit a cemetery. Of course, like any plenary indulgence, we must received Holy Communion, and confess our sins within 8 days.
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Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and may Perpetual Light shine upon them. May they rest in peace.
All Saints Day
Beloved in Jesus Christ, at every Mass, there comes the point after the Lord’s Prayer, when the priest breaks the large Host into 3 pieces, one of which is placed into the chalice. What is the meaning of these 3 parts of the Sacred Host?
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According[i] to Thomas Aquinas, Pope Sergius, and others, since the Host is the Body of Christ, one of the pieces represents the Church on earth, another, represents the Church in Purgatory, and the 3rd part, placed into the Chalice represents the glorious Church in heaven. The entire Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, is composed of the Church Militant, the Church Suffering, and the Church Triumphant.
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We on earth continue the battle in the spiritual life, with many enemies, seen and unseen; we are in the spiritual combat for souls, for our soul, for heaven: and this is the Church Militant. Those who are in Purgatory, expiating their sins, being purified for heaven, this is the Church Suffering, those who are helped by our prayers, and who help us.
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Today’s great Feast has us look to the Church Triumphant. Today is All Saints Day. The saints have won the victory and now rejoice in heaven. In the Book of Revelation today, St. John gives us this vision of the glory of heaven: ‘And I saw a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, and peoples, standing before the throne in the sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands – [the palm was a sign of victory] ‘with palms in their hands they cried with a loud voice, Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. Blessing, and glory, and thanksgiving, honor, and power, and strength to our God for ever and ever.’
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The saints are rejoicing in heaven, praising God, and interceding for us as well. They have won the victory, and these great saints are an example for us. If we are tempted to fear, in the fight for our souls, we should look to these heroic models who fought hard to be virtuous in this life, and to find glory in the next.
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St. Antony of Egypt says,[ii] ‘those who compete in the Olympics are not crowned after achieving victory over their first opponent, or their second, or third, but only after they have defeated every one of their competitors. In the same way, he says, all who wish to be crowned by God must train their souls to be disciplined, and conquer all their temptations: greed, lust, envy, anger, vanity, and all the rest.
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If we feel discouraged over our battle with our failings, God has given us many great examples to help us. There are saints who died to protect their purity, such as St. Maria Goretti or St. Agatha, and there are saints who repented, and overcame their impurity. There are saints who had brilliant minds and used them to preach the gospel; and there are saints who could not even read.
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St. Alphonsus says that in heaven we will find two groups of saints praising God: the innocent ones, and the penitents; the Saint Teresa’s and St. Barbara’s – the innocent ones; and the St. Augustine’s and the St. Camillus’s, who repented. We have all the models we need, to give us hope in this warfare, this fight for holiness.
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There was once a man named Ignatius who wanted to be great in the world; he was a soldier, and dreamed of fame and honors. But in battle, his leg was shattered by a cannon ball, he spent a long time recovering in the hospital. There, they gave him some books to read about the saints, it’s all they had. While he read those books, he thought: ‘Why could I not do what St Francis did, or St Dominic? ‘The saints did these things, then I will too.’ And he did. And he was St. Ignatius of Loyola.
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Today therefore, is a day to look to our friends the saints for inspiration, who had to follow Christ each day, resisting temptation, praying, beginning again, the same as us.
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Tomorrow is All Souls Day. We pray for those in Purgatory, that they be purified of their sins and reach heaven. We can obtain a plenary Indulgence tomorrow for someone in Purgatory; we do this by visiting a Church and praying the Our Father and the Apostles Creed. And pray for the Pope. Confession within 20 days, and receive Holy Communion.
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We can also obtain a Plenary indulgence for a Holy Soul from today, November 1st, to November 8th, by visiting a cemetery and praying for the dead.
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During many days of the Liturgical year, we remember one of the saints at Mass, almost every day; the saint’s feast day usually coincides with their death, because what matters for us, is not if we have fallen or committed sins, as long as we have repented and turned our life back to Jesus Christ. What matters, is who and what we are at our death. Are we a friend of God at the end. So the saint’s feast days are usually the day of their death.
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The Blessed Virgin however, has a feast day on her birthday; this is because Mary was born a saint, she was born ‘full of grace.’ The grace of the Blessed Virgin exceeds not only each saint, but all the angels and saints put together. And so as we show our devotion to the saints today, above all, we give our heart to Mary, Queen of the saints.
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May the Lord help us to become saints, one day at a time, until our last breath on earth.
To the most Holy and undivided Trinity, to the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ crucified; to the spotless maternity of the most Blessed and glorious ever-virgin Mary, and to the whole assembly of Saints, be everlasting praise, honor, power, and glory, from every creature, and to us forgiveness of all our sins. Forever and ever.
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[Entrusted to the prayers of St. John Vianney]
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[i] Summa Theologica, III, Q. 83 a5
[ii] Philokalia, p. 340
Friends in the Lord, in the first reading today, St. Paul, speaking about the next life says, that the sufferings of the present time are nothing, compared to the glory that will be revealed to us; then he says: For creation awaits with eager expectation – he says that creation itself, will be set free from corruption, and that creation is groaning in labor pains.
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The next life, the world to come, involves not just God and angels and mankind, but it also includes all of creation. The Catechism teaches this, in #1042, it says: The universe itself will be renewed: The Church . . . will receive her perfection in the glory of heaven, when will come the time of the renewal of all things. At that time, together with the human race, the universe itself, which is so closely related to man will be perfectly re-established in Christ. Sacred Scripture calls this mysterious renewal the “new heavens and a new earth.’
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Therefore, not only will we be resurrected in our full body and soul alive, but the cosmos itself will be renewed, making a Paradise for us with God. As the Catechism says in 1047, the visible universe, then, is itself destined to be transformed, “so that the world itself, restored to its original state, should be at the service of the just, sharing their glorification in the risen Jesus Christ.’ This is why St. Paul says that creation itself is groaning in eager expectation.
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A new student to our school, who previously had little religious instruction, showed visible enthusiasm on his face, when he heard about the beautiful world that awaits us in heaven. We ourselves should renew our anticipation and hope in the world to come.
Friends in the Lord, today we encounter this scene in the gospel where is this woman, totally bent over for 18 years.
There are serious cases of people who are quite bent over, who get older and their spine is curved from arthritis; but if we look at this scene in a spiritual way, we can see that this woman who is looking down at the ground all the time, not able to straighten up and see the world, or take in a panorama of life – that is what sin does to us. Sin takes away our ability to see everything in it’s wonder; we are stuck with our eyes on the earth instead of up toward heaven. We are in pain also – sin makes us unhappy, takes away our hope, and ruins the joys of life.
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But Jesus Christ cures this woman with a touch! Just like that. Our Lord wants the same for us in our spiritual life; he wants to cure our souls of the poison of sin, and he can do it just as simply as with this woman, for us, by means of Confession.
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Christ’s priest – his ambassador sent in his stead, by the simple words of absolution heals the person of even the greatest maladies.
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Sometimes young people, who get into something very bad, and for the first time experience the horror of serious sins – when they come to confession and confess – yes, we talk a little, some advice on how to avoid that situation again and such…. but after they hear the words of absolution – forgiveness –
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I must say, in these cases, I have never heard such gratitude to God in my life: ‘Thank you,’ they say. A lot of people say ‘thank you’, but these young people sometimes say ‘THANK YOU!’ a few times. This is because they know what it is to have Jesus forgive them, and, like that woman in the gospel, to feel the weight removed that had bent them over, so they are able to stand up, straight again.
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There is a beautiful prayer from the psalms that we say in the Old Latin Mass, before Communion, I wish it had been kept in the new Mass. It really expresses this feeling: ‘What return shall I make to the Lord for all he has done for me? I shall take up the chalice of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.’ Mass is the only place we can make adequate thanks to God, for all he has done in forgiving us.
Friends in Christ, in the first reading today from the Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul says ‘Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all have sinned.
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He is referring here to the doctrine of Original Sin. Adam and Eve were supposed to have been King and Queen of the earth; Adam, the high priest, offering creation to God. Adam was supposed to be the head of the human race.
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The first man and woman possessed sanctifying grace, the life of God in their soul; had Adam and Eve remained faithful to God, their offspring and all of the human race would have inherited this life of grace; we would have been truly happy, and immortal. Original Man was free from suffering, had great knowledge, and perfect integrity of body and soul. But sin entered the world; there was the Fall, and the loss of grace, and because of that, death entered the world, creation was wounded.
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This loss was for everyone. From that day forward, people are born into this life in the natural state: human, yes, but without the Divine Life in them. And death became part of human life.
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Jesus is called the New Adam. He has come to do what Adam should have done: be faithful to God, withstand temptation, be the perfect human being, and the High Priest, offering everything to our Father in heaven.
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Because Christ is the true head of our race, when he conquers sins and death, he does this for everyone. St. Paul says it: ‘just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so, through one righteous act acquittal and life came to all. Just as through the disobedience of one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous.’
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So this is a summary of how Christ is the New Adam. This salvific act of Jesus is effective for all, available to all, because Jesus Christ is a Divine Person, and in his Person he encompasses all. It is the source of our gratitude and unending thanksgiving, that Christ has made all this possible for us.
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By baptism, we are restored to this grace: sanctifying grace. And eventually, through holiness in this life and fully in the next, we will be restored to all the supernatural gifts of Paradise.
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‘If by that one man’s transgression the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.’
