Trinity III

The Gospel St. Luke 15.1

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you

O cast thy burden upon the Lord : and he shall nourish thee.

There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

Reading and interpreting Scripture is always a bit of a dicey game. The danger is that we all tend to focus on one or two verses to justify how we already feel about something. But sometimes, certain things stand out; like the way that our Missal is put together.

For example, if you just read the Epistle, Gradual and Gospel for today, you might think that they mean three entirely different things. But usually, there is some connection. For me, at least, today’s connection was in the three lines that I just read.

We have to start with the goal of the message; Joy. The joy of the Angels. The joy of God. That’s what we Christians exist for. That’s what we strive for; to worship God; to praise Him; to bring others to know His Love. All these things bring joy to God, and therefore, to us. But how do we do this? How do we get those Angels dancing for joy?

Well, we’ve been told by Christ himself that this happens when we repent. Repentance is yet another one of those things that we either take for granted or choose to ignore altogether. We tend to shy away from that word because repentance means that we’re sorry for something, which means that we have to admit that we did something wrong; which also means that we might have to go to confession, and THAT’s something we really don’t like to do!

We don’t like to confess because confession leads to penance. To be truly repentant means that we need to somehow compensate for our offence. That’s what penance is, and we see that as punishment. We may be really sorry for what we’ve done, but we don’t want to take the punishment for it. So we don’t confess, we don’t compensate, and we aren’t truly repentant. And the Angels don’t get to dance for joy.

We make it so hard, but it doesn’t have to be. You see, once again, we have the manual to tell us how to be repentant; how to bring joy to the Angels and to God. That leads us to the Epistle for today; Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you.

That’s all there is to it. Humble yourselves. Right away I can see that some of you might be picturing the old “sack cloth and ashes” routine; but that’s not it at all. To humble yourself means simply that we need to suppress our ego. It means that we need to realize that we don’t always know what is best. It means that we have to overcome that emotion that you’ve heard me preaching about again and again; Pride.

Pride gets in the way of everything. It’s pride that stops us from making good decisions. It’s pride that stops us from correcting bad decisions. It’s pride that stops us from even considering options that are outside of our preconceived ideas. It’s pride that keeps us from admitting that God knows best. It’s pride that keeps us from humbling ourselves before God. It’s pride that keeps us from being truly repentant. And so, the Angels don’t get to dance for joy.

Again, humbling ourselves doesn’t have to be so hard. All we need to do is focus on the goal; that he may exalt you. Now, why would God want to exalt us? Because by doing so, He can present us as an example to all mankind, so that others can know His Love, His Joy. And besides, who wouldn’t want to be exalted by God? Wouldn’t that be better than winning on “American Idol”? Who would you rather be exalted by; God or Jennifer Lopez?

And so we ask, how do we humble ourselves? How do we overcome that pride that keeps getting in the way? How do we start the music so that the Angels can dance for joy? Well, the answer to that question is in this line; O cast thy burden upon the Lord : and he shall nourish thee.

Is this too cool or what? We want to bring joy to God. And He wants us to know His Joy; so He urges us to repent. In order to repent, we have to humble ourselves; and when we do, God will, at the same time, exalt us; and to accomplish all this, all we need to do is ask Him!

Our burden is our sin. And if we give up that burden, if we give it to God, He will nourish our spirit, so that we can humble ourselves; so that we can compensate for our offences; so that we can be truly repentant; so the Angels can dance for joy. All of this we can accomplish, if we just turn the whole issue over to God and ask Him to tell us what to do.

Now, you want to know the really fantastic part? It’s already been done for us! Our burdens have already been taken up by God. He placed them all upon His Lamb; the Lamb that was sacrificed for us, for our sins. Jesus Christ took our sins upon himself; and he has provided nourishment for us even to this day.

Now do you see why I say that it’s not that hard? Why do we worry about humbling ourselves? Why do we worry about how to be repentant? The first step is already done for us! Jesus Christ has taken our burden upon himself and he nourishes us with his Body and Blood. With our reception of that nourishment comes the realization that we are humbled before God. And with that comes the knowledge that we have also offended God, and that we need to repent. And when we repent, well, you know what the Angels will do.

The ultimate goal is joy. The joy of the Angels when we repent. The joy of God when He exalts us and uses us to expand His Kingdom. And our own joy that comes with the knowledge that His Son, Our Lord,  has lifted the burden off our shoulders and given us the spiritual nourishment we need to accomplish that ultimate goal.

O cast thy burden upon the Lord : and he shall nourish thee.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you

There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.