First reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm: Ps 85:9-14
Epistle: 1 John 4:17-21
Gospel: Luke 10:25-37

The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant…

We are changed

We are a new people, a people of the new covenant, a people born in love. We have been changed in every way imaginable and we are constantly growing into the people God calls us to become. From the moment we were baptized we have been on the road to change, renewal of life, and of dedication to fulfilling the love our Lord has given us.

Jesus’ coming ushered in this new covenant —“ but that was only the beginning. Often we mistake Jesus as a one time event, even an end point. If we think it all ended with Jesus’ ascension we would be wrong. At His ascension Jesus challenged us to take up the life He called us to, the Christian life in which every day is a step forward in the new covenant.

Jesus’ time on earth was not an experiment in magic or some sort of mystical transformation for humanity, it wasn’t some sort of cheep trick aimed at changing man, but was His gift of love by which we were changed and transformed into a people of the new covenant. In the new covenant we learn that we are to live love. Jesus’ coming was the mark in time from which something very special happened… freedom to love truly and rightly.

The old law is no more…

St. Paul often talks about the law as being about sin and death. He strongly stated that by Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection, the marking points for the new covenant, we were freed from the law, freed to live forever in the love of God.

The law given to Moses was a prescription against sin. Like any drug it was meant to be used by people who were already sick. Freedom from the law does not mean that we won’t get sick, literally that we will fall in sin, but that our lives are not defined by sin. In the new covenant our falling is cured by living transformed lives defined by the love Jesus taught.

It starts with Jesus touching us

Last week’s Gospel was a prime example of the kind of love Jesus taught. As you recall a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment was brought to Jesus. First Jesus took him aside, away from the onlookers, and then He did something remarkable —“ Jesus healed by the power of touch and the word.

Jesus spit, touched the man’s tongue, and put His fingers in the man’s ears. He then spoke a word and the man’s ears were opened and he could speak clearly. I’m thinking that if Mary was there she would have been indignant and would have told Jesus to go wash His hands. When we hear that Gospel, and ones similar to it, we sense a definite ick factor. But what Jesus did was a perfect act of love. Jesus touched the man; He laid his hands on Him and made him whole. By loving the man Jesus opened his ears and his life to the message of love.

Jesus touches us to love us. He gave us the sacraments for that very reason, so He could enter into our lives through the hands of his ministers. Jesus wants to be with us and wants to show His love. Then He asks that we take His touch, His love, and share it with the world.

It works when we accept

Back to the ick factor… what if the man got grossed out and ran away? Well, he wouldn’t have been healed, but more so, he wouldn’t have been set free.

The starting point and the path that Jesus offers requires our full cooperation, just like the man cooperated with what Jesus was doing. This is what Bishop Hodur and the Church define as regeneration.

That process begins at baptism and wends its way through our lives till we reach a point where we actively engage the Lord and say yes to Him. Picture the revival meeting or the altar call in your head, people coming up and falling on their knees to accept Jesus. We may not be quite as dramatic —“ but you know what, that’s what we are called to do. We must make the choice; fall on our knees and say: —Yes Lord, I love you and I want to live by the love you taught.—

Be careful of the ick factor and don’t let it get in the way of true faith in our Lord and Savior. He is the one who spit, put His hands on the man’s tongue, put His fingers in his ears, made a mud of spit and dirt and placed it on another man’s eyes, and endured the cross —“ giving us His body and blood to eat and drink. True faith means that accepting Jesus means that we accept His commandment of love which transforms the ick of life into beauty, the commandment that collapses the former law into the love command:

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’

That’s not the end

‘Do this, and you will live‘ requires that we do more than accept. We could show up for 10,000 altar calls, to justify ourselves but that will be of no avail. The one acceptance, acceptance of Jesus in our hearts and into our lives, makes us new and puts us on the road to heaven. It is what we do after acceptance that matters, our cooperation in living Jesus’ commandment of love.

I love the way Bishop Hodur stated the work of the Church. The Church is here to accept, help, and love all who seek Christ and abide in her, and if some should chose another path we wish them well and do not disparage them.

Isn’t that Christian love in action? Christian love means that we set aside the ick, the criticism, the disparaging, and every ill thought. Our transformed lives welcome, accept, hold up, love, and care for all. We journey together to heaven and we do not disparage those who seek another path to heaven. We journey together in the process of learning from the Church, taking its guidance as a means for improving the way we love each other —“ and all —“ for who is my neighbor.

If we focus on the Christianity of laws, criticism, ick, or he or she is not good enough, then we cannot claim to be Christians at all, for we will have fallen back into the old ways of the law, trying to change behaviors instead of changing our very identity.

We start in accepting Jesus Christ; we work on changing ourselves so that everything we are says that we live in Christ, loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

Let’s get close

The time to get close is now. First, get close to Jesus. If you’ve never consciously done it, say yes to Him and invite Him to change your life, to change your identity. It happened to me at the Mission and Evangelization Workshop in Perth Amboy not that many years ago. We went to a Full Gospel Church to learn about that Church’s ministry. Sitting in the sanctuary and listening to one of their deacon’s describe the power of the Holy Spirit I asked Jesus to change me. The beauty of the moment —“ I’ll never forget it. The change, ask my wife, its on-going and didn’t happen overnight. But I know that the Lord is with me telling me constantly to love, to be transformed.

Next, let’s get close to those around us, here in church, at work, at home, in the neighborhood. Let’s find the people the world calls icky, the people we avoid or are uncomfortable with. It is time to start the process —“ to learn how to love as Jesus loves, to invite as Jesus invites.

This Solemnity marks our difference

Our Church has given us this beautiful Solemnity. Our Church echoes the words of Jesus —“ Come unto me! Pójdź za Mną! That is the call of love that goes forth from every Parish in the Holy Polish National Catholic Church. Come; do not count cost or past transgression. Do not dwell on the ick. We do not abide in hell fire and fear, red devils or criticism. All are welcome to join us —“ to be brothers and sisters living renewed and regenerated lives of love. We believe in God’s goodness – the seed He planted in each of us which takes shape from the moment we come to Him. We are transformed and on the road — becoming the loving people of God. Amen.