“GOD’S FULL MEASURE—THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST”
Saint Luke 6: 36-42
4th Sunday After Trinity: 13 July Anno Domini 2014
Father Jay Watson SSP
Christians are called upon to judge and weigh doctrine. Followers of The Christ follow His teachings and truths and not the doctrines of men. You are to be very familiar and comfortable with the doctrines and dogmas of His Holy Word so that you can avoid heretical beliefs as well as pagan practices.
You are not to judge others. You are to be dispensers of mercy.
To love your neighbor as yourself means just that. You wouldn’t want to go to hell by denying the Trinity or the Personal Union of Christ’s two natures in One Person. You wouldn’t want to die unrepentant by willfully breaking the 10 Commandments. You are grateful when a teacher points out some heterodoxy that has crept into your mind-set and you joyfully come to confession to kneel and receive your merciful Lords absolution. You desire these same things for those you come into contact with and those you might have some influence upon. The way you speak with a casual one-time contact is always going to be somewhat different and nuanced than how you converse and relate to someone you see every day at work or in a social setting. So remember that The Lord is the Judge. It is the glorified and returning God/Man Who sits upon the throne separating the sheep from the goats—not you. Don’t “jump the gun.” Some people that you assume are damned are not even dead yet. God desires all men to be saved; so do you. So stop judging like a Pharisee and continue loving like a caring brother or sister.
This is not indifferentism or libertinism. No one is being instructed to turn a blind eye to flagrant sin and harmful behavior. You are to speak the truth about the sins of divorce and sodomy. You are to share the Law with those who gossip and lie. You are to defend traditional marriage and sexual chastity before the wedding vows. You are to urge people who don’t come to Mass to start attending the Divine Service. You are to counsel repentance and Christian virtues.
But all of that is borne of love—Christ’s love for you. Because Jesus has forgiven you for sins every bit as disgusting and heinous as those you “cluck about” you are more than eager to pass on this kind of mercy. You don’t condone someone in the hardness of their heart true enough; you don’t slather them with pious platitudes about forgiveness if they’re gloriously and happily embedded in their sin, luxuriating in its filth, true enough. But what did Simon Peter once say? If my brother comes to me…how many times must I forgive?
The Christian, who refuses to forgive, is a “Christian” who doesn’t believe the Our Father’s 5th petition! One who won’t forgive is in more danger than the one whose sins seem to be the object of his self-righteous condemnation.
But your “old Adam” is a buzzard that can’t be lectured or hectored into becoming an angel of mercy. Your sinful self gets too much pleasure in petty and malicious grudges and snits! Only Jesus the Forgiving One can rescue the sinner…that would be the one you’re so obsessed with, and YOU AS WELL! Jesus takes both of your trespassing selves into Himself as He is crucified and killed.
You can give, you do give, because Jesus gave for you. You can love, you do love, because you are loved. You can bear, you do bear your brothers burdens, because Jesus bore yours on the Tree.
Can the blind lead the blind? No. Can someone without any moisture, any water, give a drink to someone else? No. Can an empty sack provide food to someone starving? No.
Jesus is the answer. Christ is the source for He is SAVIOR and FORGIVER. You point your wounded selves and your former antagonists and adversaries to the Redeemer’s rood, His crucifix. At the foot of the Cross the rain of righteousness, the deluge of Divine Blood washes, nourishes, and fills all with rest and peace.
Where is that Calvary? Not inside your heart and not in downtown Jerusalem. Those are ditches of emotionalism and mysticism. Christ’s forgiveness is where He has attached it; where He has cemented it with the gracious glue of His Word, Blood, Body, Water, and actual presence!
Because Jesus HAS given to you the merits of His obedience and His atoning death for your sin…you have “good measure, pressed down, and shaken together.” You have The Body which was pressed down on the wood, The flesh that was shaken by slaps, whips, and spikes. The “good measure” is God’s measure of forgiveness and oneness which is “running over…into your bosom.” The Blood of The Lamb is gushing out of His pierced bosom into yours, into your now eternally beating and vivified hearts of Grace. You are a constantly bubbling, gurgling, spewing forth fountains of faith not because of “your” faith, but because of The Faith—The Grace—The Christ Who is all in all. As lush and succulent green branches connected to The Vine of Life and Light, you naturally give “good measure” and “ye mete withal” to all you come into contact with.
Not condemning…God’s Law will work its way without your Sanhedrin voting; but showing mercy…it’s what those who have been shown and given Mercy do.
In the Name of The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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