St. Luke in today’s Gospel wanted to write down the life of Christ so that we may know the truth of the teachings we have received.

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. January 24th, 2009

Luke tells us that Jesus began his public ministry in his own land of Galilee where he was raised as a child. Jesus' first public words in his hometown synagogue amazed both his family and townspeople. Jesus read the text from the prophet Isaiah that explained how the Messiah would come in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring freedom to those oppressed by sin and evil (see Isaiah 61:1-2). Jesus proclaimed that He himself was the fulfillment of this prophecy. With this proclamation came only two possibilities, either Jesus was a madman to make such a claim or He was truly the Messiah, the one sent by God to proclaim the truth. Jesus not only got their startled attention, he awoke in his people fresh hope that God would indeed fulfill his promises to them. Luke tells us that at least at first, the people received Jesus' words favorably and wondered what would become of "Joseph's son". In Jesus the Messiah we see the grace of God in action. His gracious words bring hope, joy, and salvation to all who are open to receive him fully.
Jesus is indeed the one sent by God to save his people by giving them the truth they need for salvation. Jesus speaks this truth to the people and he speaks it with courage. He tells the people that they must both accept and conformed their life to the truth he has come to give in order for them to be saved. In next weeks Gospel we will hear that the people turn against Jesus, they did not want to change their lives to conform Jesus’ truth. Some even attempted to throw Jesus over a cliff to silence him. They wanted to live in the reality of their own truth. And Jesus was upsetting their reality.
Jesus wants us to have the same courage too, to speak and stand up for the truth. The problem is, is that our society frowns on any talk about religion or about God; a person who mentions his faith in a casual conversation is considered weird or a fanatic. Even more than talk about religion and God, our society hates any talk about the notion of objective truth. Just as there were those who hated Jesus after he claimed to have to have the Good News-Which is the truth, our society hates anyone who claims to have the Truth. There is an incredibility strong skepticism to any claim of truth in our day. There are those who if they don’t outright deny objective truth, believe there is more than one truth. “You have your truth and I have mine.” This leads to the great error of believing we are not to speak to others about what we believe or what our church believes.
I hear this modern skepticism of the truth all the time. Many times people come to me and ask, “Father, who’s truth do we believe. How do we know what’s true? I usually respond by saying, reality determines what true. Knowing the truth begins with looking at the world God has created. Take for example gravity. Gravity is a truth. Try to deny and disprove the truth of gravity by stepping off a three-story building. I guarantee you won’t disprove but you will prove the truth of gravity.
A better example is the truth of the Ten Commandments and the modern day attempt to make them just one truth among many-a matter of personal religious belief and as such not to be displayed publicly for fear of offending those who deny them. But anyone who denies the truth of the Ten Commandments really denies reality. The Ten Commandments are based on reality, they are based on the truth of who we are as human beings. Anyone, whether or not they are religious knows that it is wrong to kill another human being or to steal. If the Ten Commandments aren’t true then we better leave all those in prison who are guilty of these things go free.
But probably the best argument I can give them to the truth is to tell them about Jesus Christ the one who is Truth. To deny Jesus Christ and the teachings he gave us is to deny reality. It is to deny not only God, but it is to deny who we are as human beings and our destiny. What we are made for. To deny Christ is to deny the meaning of love, which he taught to us by hanging on a tree for love of us. When a person denies the truth of the Good News, that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that person is living in non-reality. Could it be that they don’t want to accept the Truth because they don’t want to change their sinful life.
St. Luke in today’s Gospel wanted to write down the life of Christ so that we may know the truth of the teachings we have received. With this truth comes great responsibility. With it comes the obligation to try to come to know more the truth or the doctrine of Jesus found in its fullness in the teachings of His Church. We have been given the Gospel, the Word of God, and we have been given the Church and her teachings to help us to understand the Gospel correctly and in its fullness. The teachings of the Church are God’s truth given to us so that we may come to know Jesus more and in knowing him more love him more. We can never be satisfied with the Knowledge about Jesus Christ that we have acquired so far. Why? Because love always seek to know the beloved better. When ever ones says I love enough--their love is doomed. They deny the reality of their loved one in their stinginess of love.
We must as Catholics make and effort to learn the teachings of our Church more in order to love Jesus more. WE must back up our love of Jesus by learning and living these truths of our faith, which is what it really means to practice our faith. It is not enough to know the truth, one must live it. One cannot be truly practicing their Catholic faith, if they make little or no effort to know the doctrines it professes and live these truths out in their daily lives. To deny these truths is really to deny reality and to deny reality is to live unfulfilled lives that are empty lives that lack meaning, joy and the hope that our faith gives us.
If we truly believe Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God it should show in the way we live our lives. We must live everyday like we truly believe Jesus is the Messiah. This goes beyond just showing up for Sunday Mass, we must show everyday, always, like Jesus is our Messiah. Don’t get me wrong we must attend Holy Mass and do so with great reference and love, but we must take what we receive at Mass and give to others what the Lord Jesus has given to us. If we attend Holy Mass and adore God with great love and reference, then Jesus gives us and fills us with his own courage and love so that we can believe more and stand up for the truth. When we are filled with God’s love we can only but be courageous.
Someone once wrote to me a letter in which he said, Father if only I would have realized how true the teachings of the Church were before I lived my life in opposition to them. I would have been much happier in my life. I wish I had made more of an effort to know her teachings and understand them more, I realized now that ignorance doesn’t save one from the consequences of unwise decisions. He then wrote, Father, stay the course; preach the truth no matter what the cost. Another person said, Father, don’t let the faithful be content with mediocrity.
We all must speak the truth no matter what the cost, but most importantly we must live it no matter what the sacrifice because love demands sacrifice. We must do so with great courage, courage that can only come to those who truly love Jesus Christ with their whole hearts, souls and minds. Christianity is not a comfortable religion; while it is dangerous and demanding to speak the truth; it is even more dangerous and demanding to live it. Martyrs have proven this; saints have lived in poverty and testified to this. What is our testimony to our faith then? In our modern times, it could be as simple as standing up for and living what the church, the Pope and our legitimate religious leaders are teaching especially in the areas of human life and human sexuality. In the end, truth matters so much because without out we cannot reach the promise of eternal life.
Let us pray. God our Father, at this Holy sacrifice of the Mass open our hearts to you grace in order to know and be open to the truth, so that we may know you more and in knowing you more come to love you more. Help us to show our love for you by our faithfulness to the Church you founded in living and practicing all of your teachings. Help us especially understand those teachings we find hard to accept. Help us to conform our lives to them and live them with every fiber of our being. We ask these through the Truth Himself, Jesus Christ our Lord.