Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter May 6, 2018
Fr. Albert St. Peter’s, New Iberia
Well, which is it? Are we saved because God loves us or because we obey him? It really seems like Scripture is talking out of both sides of its mouth. The first reading emphasizes doing what is right. The second reading God’s love. And the Gospel seems to flip flop!
In that first reading, we see Cornelius being baptized. He was a Roman – a Pagan. But, he evidently acknowledged the God of Israel and even gave money to the poor as a sign of his love for God. Just before this scene, an angel tells this Roman soldier to send for Peter. What’s more amazing is the reason. The angel tells him “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.” So, Peter comes along and starts preaching and down comes the Holy Spirit.
Peter proclaims “God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.” In other words, Cornelius is such a good man – even before he is a Christian – that God sends an angel, then the Pope to baptize him. Baptism brings salvation. So, this story seems to say that Cornelius is saved because he is good, because he prays and gives to the poor.
But then, the Apostle John, in our second reading, says that “everyone who loves is begotten by God.” He goes on to explain “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us.” In other words, people are because God loves us, not because of what we do.
Finally, Jesus seems unable to make up his mind. First, he tells us “You are my friends if you do what I command you.” But then he turns around and makes it clear “it was not you who chose me, but I who chose you.”
And you know what? This back and forth runs throughout the whole New Testament. You can find plenty of examples of the bible saying salvation is a pure gift from God, but just as many examples of the bible saying that everyone is judged by their actions, that doing the right thing is what really matters.
So. which is it? Are we saved by God’s love or our obedience? As with many other aspects of our faith, the answer is “both.” As if often the case, the Truth is a bit of a paradox and a mystery.
It’s tempting to look at this question in terms of a power struggle, to ask the question like this: “how much power to be saved comes from God and how much comes from us?” But to even answer this question is to make a mistake, because it assumes a zero sum game. It assumes that the power that comes from God is mutually exclusive of the power that comes from my own free will. If God gives 100%, then I must give 0 and vice versa. If my actions decide my salvation, then God’s love must not be enough. When phrased like that, you get the protestant reformation.
But, answer this question. When I use this pen to write, who is writing, me or the pen? Does 100% of the writing come from me or the pen? The answer, of course, is both but in different ways. The pen is writing as a pen, an instrument. I am writing as a person with intelligence and free will. The writing on the page comes 100% from me, but also 100% from the pen. The pen and I are working at two different levels of reality.
Transfer that idea up a notch. Now we are the pens and God the person using it. God wants to write out our salvation, but he uses our own actions to do it. The big difference between us and the pen, though, is that we do have free will. The pen does not decide whether or not to cooperate, but we do. But God operates at an even higher level of reality, the highest, in fact. His power is what enables us to have free will in the first place. His power, his love, is what puts “being a good person” within the realm of possibility for our decisions. Just as when I write, the pen and I are both working at different levels, so every time you decide to do something genuinely good, you and God are both working, at different levels, to do that good thing.
Cornelius being a good pagan was possible because of God’s power and his plan. His choices ultimately allowed him to accept baptism and salvation, but those are still entirely dependent on God. We are Jesus’ friends if we obey his commandments, but the fact that we have his commandments and that friendship is even a possibility is a gift from God.
God is writing out an amazing story. Where we use words, he uses reality itself. In a way that we cannot fully grasp, we are truly free to make our own decisions, but God is nonetheless using all of that to write, to compose a story, a blueprint, an orchestra of Divine Love and the free human response to that Love. You are to be an instrument, a pen, a paintbrush in that grand composition, but you still have a choice.
And understanding that power to choose is the secret to a happy life. So often, when we choose to sin, it’s because we’ve accepted a dangerous lie, the lie that obedience to God robs us of our freedom or that our decisions don’t matter. There is the voice whispering to us “don’t be controlled” or “this choice isn’t important.” But you aren’t being controlled, and your choice does matter. By grace, your every decision has the potential to be an instrument in the hand of God. But, that also means your every decision, no matter how small, is seen by God. As sharers of the divine image, our choices echo through eternity.
How tremendous a burden, how frightful that truth! In the end, freedom without direction is a curse. When we consider the eternal responsibility written into the very fabric of our humanity, then the idea of being on our own is terrifying! And then can see that obedience does not destroy our freedom, it saves it! When Jesus says, “you are my friends if you do what I command you,” it is not a test. For those who know the weight of their own free will, to be given such a command is the greatest gift. For those who’ve seen the darkness, the loneliness of freedom without God, obedience is not the way to friendship, it is the very experience of it. “This I command you: love on another.” To obey such a command is not to lose your freedom; It is to discover it.