Saint Cornelius, Pope and Martyr and Saint Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr

Peter H. Davids

Ordinary Time Homilies • Sermon • Submitted 8 months ago • Presented 8 months ago

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Our texts teach that God does rescue sinners, both those obviously so and those not so obvious - we are bent against him and he delivers us. They also teach that salvation is evidenced by change, often gradual change, without which conformity to Christ we will not be among the saved on the last day. So I am thankful for the first in my life and striving towards the second and I hope you are as well.

Notes

Transcript

Title

Are You Saved?

Outline

In my culture growing up there was a lot of talk about being saved?

Are you saved, brother?

He was saved last night at the revival.

Yet the Protestant culture misses two major points about God’s rescue

The first is that God rescues sinners

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” A lot of people do not like thinking of infants and children as sinners in need of rescue, for the miss the collective in the human condition; but if you are in a sinking boat you need saving even if you are too young to understand what the fuss is about.

Now Paul knew he had been a sinner, indeed, in his rhetoric, the worst of sinners, but that is brought up to magnify God’s grace. The truth is that we humans needed rescue for our minds were shaped by Eve and Adam and we could do nothing about it.

The second is that salvation is evidenced in change

There was a behavior that, potentially at least (in the case of a child) was leading us farther from God and rescue included a change of will to follow Jesus and therefore a change of behavior. That there is change is seen as ideal in many Protestant traditions but not as necessary. Now this keeps them from judging, but if you fail to discern the symptoms of an early cancer it will kill you without asking you.

Jesus talks about good and bad behavior (according to his definition) as bearing fruit, not so that we can condemn each other, but so that we can know ourselves or help others realize that they are showing signs of cancer rather than of growth. It is for rescue.

Jesus says it is our behavior, not our confession or an outwardly successful or worshipful life (the house), that is important, for that indicates if we are built on him, on the rock. I was in a deanery meeting when it was announced that a certain priest who had gone to seminary with others in the room had been arrested for pedophilia. On the one hand, he had been an exemplary pious seminarian, “most likely to make saint.” On the other, he was not arrested for impulses or feelings, but for actions, for what he did, which did not accord with what Jesus said. So we can fool others by our pious behaviors, but it will be what we do, whether we actually cooperate with grace and conform that to Jesus, that will indicate our status in the last judgment.

So, Sisters, I take these passages seriously

I long ago gave up the single-tense “saved” language, long before becoming Catholic.

But I know that God did rescue me from an early age and yet that if I am to be among the saved in the last judgment I must focus each day on growth in virtue (which is part of my morning prayers), on dealing with vices, even small ones, and on becoming more one with Christ, not just in religious experiences (which I love) but especially in behavior.

I know all that and am striving to grow more saved every day, and I trust that you do too.

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 9-16-2023: Saint Cornelius, Pope and Martyr and Saint Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr

FIRST READING

1 Timothy 1:15–17

15 This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I am the foremost. 16 But for that reason I was mercifully treated, so that in me, as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life. 17 To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Catholic Daily Readings 9-16-2023: Saint Cornelius, Pope and Martyr and Saint Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr

RESPONSE

Psalm 113:2

2 Blessed be the name of the LORD

both now and forever.

PSALM

Psalm 113:1b–7

1 Hallelujah!

Praise, you servants of the LORD,

praise the name of the LORD.

2 Blessed be the name of the LORD

both now and forever.

3 From the rising of the sun to its setting

let the name of the LORD be praised.

4 High above all nations is the LORD;

above the heavens his glory.

5 Who is like the LORD our God,

enthroned on high,

6 looking down on heaven and earth?

7 He raises the needy from the dust,

lifts the poor from the ash heap,

Catholic Daily Readings 9-16-2023: Saint Cornelius, Pope and Martyr and Saint Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

John 14:23

23 Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

GOSPEL

Luke 6:43–49

43 “A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. 44 For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thornbushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles. 45 A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.

46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I command? 47 I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them. 48 That one is like a person building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built. 49 But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed.”

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 9-16-2023: Saint Cornelius, Pope and Martyr and Saint Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2023 | MEMORIAL

SAINT CORNELIUS, POPE AND MARTYR AND SAINT CYPRIAN, BISHOP AND MARTYR

YEARS 1 & 2 | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

From Saturday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading 1 Timothy 1:15–17

Response Psalm 113:2

Psalm Psalm 113:1b–7

Gospel Acclamation John 14:23

Gospel Luke 6:43–49

Catholic Daily Readings (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2009).

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