September 22nd, 2024 - 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Living in the Saving Work of Jesus

How good are any of us at waiting? They say the: “Good things are worth waiting for!” And at the same time, what is waited for should also cause us to prepare for – so, that when it does come, we can appreciate and benefit from it!

Our eventual union with God in Heaven could not be done by mortal flesh – human beings.  We don’t have the nature to extend our lives beyond death and only by dying in our flesh could God’s Son give our human nature the ability to join in His life beyond death. I hope that makes sense!

The coming of God is BIG! The complexity of salvation depended on Jesus coming, instructing us and giving us a way to live in eternity. That method is Baptism and The Eucharist.

So, we can see that God needed to prepare the world for the coming of His Son in the flesh.

Salvation and Resurrection could only be the work of Jesus as God made flesh

For the last four weeks we have had the second readings from James Letter to the Jews outside of Palestine (“The Diaspora”). So, James becomes a “missionary” letter to instruct, warn and teach those newly converted from obedience to the Law of Moses to obedience to Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

This shift in cultural religious praxis would be culture shattering and always in conflict with their upbringing if it wasn’t for the fact that Judaism, at the time of Jesus, had been a faith waiting to be completed. The Jews were rescued by God from slavery in Egypt (remember Joseph and Pharaoh) to a commitment, by circumcision, to worship of “The One God” (Yahweh). Then God sent prophets to speak for Him and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel), Joseph, Moses, Jeremiah, Elijah and Zachariah all spoke of the coming and needed obedience to God (The Father of Israel).

The Salvation History we know from the Old Testament was the daily scriptures that prepared a people to recognize Jesus as the one that had been foretold by all those mentioned. Now James Letter reveals the complexity of living in the saving work of Jesus. God’s completed Plan for us!

May God Bless you!

Fr. Patrick Nelson, SDS