A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. Of course, this is a continuation of the readings of the last few mornings. But the one way to destroy any bit of literature, and whatever this is, this is literature, is to do what we do with it, chop it up. So once again, I recommend reading it at least chapter by chapter. Makes more sense.
But, anyway, we do the best we can in this world which is not perfect. So our lord proclaimed aloud, whoever puts his faith in me believes not so much in me as in him who sent me, and whoever looks upon me is seeing him who sent me. I have come into the world as its light to keep anyone who believes in me from remaining in the dark. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I am not the one to condemn him. For I did not come into the world to condemn the world, but to save it.
However, whoever rejects me and does not accept my words already has his judge, namely, the word that I have spoken. It is that which will condemn him on the last day. You know this, you never see this on an Easter card or a Christmas card. For I have not spoken, our lord says, on my own. No.
The father who sent me, he is the one who has commanded me what to say and how to speak. Since I know that his commandment means eternal life, whatever I say is spoken just as he instructed me. And this is the gospel, the good news of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and the holy spirit, amen. If there's anything you can say about our contemporary world, and that's the world in which we live and move and have our being, whether we like it or not, and wherever we are, the world is where I am.
That's my world, which may be extended by the media, including letters. If there's anything you can say about this world, for sure, is that by and large, in western culture, we have lost the sense of the supernatural. Now these are words. But what I mean to say is we, as a as in western culture, we are living for practical purpose. I mean, in our daily lives as if there were no god, as if we were not living for immortality and eternity with god in heaven that we call salvation.
Just within the last forty eight hours, I think it was the New York Times for Sunday, there's an article there was a brief article in there in which what we call the nations of the Eastern Block are now beginning to wonder how they can resist the evils of the West and especially its materialism. What do you think of that? So let's not pat ourselves on the back and live in an unreal world. You cannot I don't know. I think this is a really, giving a bad name to ostriches to say we play the role of an ostrich.
I don't know about ostriches bearing their heads in the sand. But anyway, if any of us thinks that this nation lives up to what's on our money in godly trust, they are living in a fantasy world. Believe me. The people who use the coins of the realm in God we trust probably haven't given a thought to God for a second for what they're using the money. Now what what I find so unfortunate notice my word, unfortunate with so many good Catholics and, let us say, good Christians, is there one of appreciation of what we just read this morning from our lord?
You take all this talk about morality, which begins with the navel and goes down. It's all a bunch of don'ts. It's all a bunch of negatives. Don't commit a proportion. Don't commit fornication.
Don't commit adultery. Don't give in to homosexuality or enlistment. Don't. Don't. Don't.
This is a very false picture of following Christ. You can't follow Christ by walking backwards. You have to follow Christ by walking with him, and he goes forward. He has no reverse gear. You see, instead of saying you take this, say no, we're told say no to drugs.
It's the silliest thing I've ever heard. Now we're being told, if you saw that program Sunday night on sixty minutes, we are represented that those who still have a a snickering for chastity, that it's useless to tell our adolescent high school boys and girls and especially the girls, because it's the girls who mostly have the babies, it's useless to say no to intercourse. That is not a Christian answer to say no to intercourse. What you're saying is in chastity, yes to God. You're not saying no to anything.
You're saying yes to God. To be a Christian isn't a walk back or just a walk forward. It's a positive thing. Believe me. It isn't living to avoid sin.
It's living to be joined with Jesus Christ. Contrary of that, of course, is vice, which we're not pursuing pursuing vice. Even old man Aquinas knew that, that everything we want is under the aspect of the good. People don't steal a million a thousand dollars or so because they think it's evil. This text this morning see, this is not the kind of thing you hear, and it's difficult to talk about it.
It's so because it's not concrete. It's much easier to go out and talk about activities of all kinds of or meeting down in the in the mall or something. These are good. I don't wanna say it, but what I'm saying is these are actions. And actions in themselves, what are they worth?
It's what's behind these actions. It's a morality, the the moras, the the act of the will, the act of the of love. These are all positive things. There's not a negative in them. Go back to your old penny catechism with just which is just a memory, unfortunately, and we're paying an awful price for it.
The second question was, why did God make you? And there's nothing in there about running away from sin. God made me to know him, to love him, to serve him. How about that? There's not a negative there.
Not a negative. The Christian life is not a life running away, fleeing from evil. Evil's a negation. It's a nonexistent thing. It's not a thing at all.
The Christian life is the life of virtue, and it's so simple. It's the whole second part of Aquinas's summa. God made me. I have to go back to God. I go back to God by my virtuous actions, which I cannot perform without the grace of Jesus Christ.
That's the whole sermon right there. And I'm not exaggerating. You can verify it. So this this little excerpt and it's just an excerpt. It's a pitiful excerpt from the message of Jesus Christ that we must realize who we are without compromise.
Without compromise. This is important. If we're Christians, we've got to stand up and act and talk as Christians, Christians. Not not in the words, in the rhetoric or any words you want to use for the world around you. You do not belong to this world.
Christ said it. You are not of this world. But we we prove him wrong all the time. We show him how wrong he was. We are of this world.
Of course, we are, but we can't afford to be if we are Christians. And so take to heart, you are living with Christ. It isn't something you discover by coming into this church. It can make it more real. Our lord's presence under the Eucharist is certainly a a modification and a difference from the presence of God in the universe I mean, in the universe.
Of course, it's different. But ask yourself, how does God, in the person of our g our Lord Jesus Christ, enter into your hourly daily living? And more specifically, into the decisions you make about even trivial things. Do you live with God? Do you live in his presence?
If you do, then you will have the confidence and the love and the assurance and the joy. And it's gonna take a lot of money out of the psychiatrist's pill. I recommend it highly. In the name of the father, of the son, and holy spirit. Amen.