Sunday Mass Readings 09/14/2014 or How to Find Jesus in the Bleacher Seats

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life." -Jn. 3:16

09/14/2014 Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

There it is, the famous John 3:16. In the context of the rest of the readings for today, it makes sense. As you would expect, the readings today are about Jesus, his coming for us and the redemption that we have through his sacrifice on the cross. The Old Testament reading tells the story of the Israelites' dissatisfaction and the foretelling of Jesus' sacrifice, when Moses was told to make a serpent on a staff and raise it so that the people, when they look upon it, can be healed.

The reading from St. Paul tells of a God so loving that he would come to us and humble himself to die for our salvation. And of course, there is the familiar message of John 3:16. Most people, even if they haven't read it, would recognize the citation. This is because for many years people would bring signs to sporting events and hold them up to be on television. They may very well still do it and the TV networks don't show it, I don't go to enough sporting events in person anymore to tell. But the signs were everywhere, to the point that I would see them in Mad magazine satires on sports. People thought that the message was important to get out there and they took it upon themselves to do it however they were able. Who knows how many people were driven to curiosity enough to dig out their bible, brush the dust off and find it? And once they saw the message, maybe they decided to turn their lives over to Jesus all because some crazy Christian decided that when he was shown on television cheering on his beloved team, he would take the opportunity to lead people to a message of hope.

We can all learn from this type of evangelism, not only through the method, but also through which verse, out of all of scripture, they thought was most important to spread across the world. It was not a message of condemnation, but a message of hope. This is made even clearer in the verse that follows, the last line of this week's gospel reading:

 "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved through him." Jn. 3:17

Jesus did not come to condemn the world and neither should we. That's not to say that we aren't all subject to a final judgement. We are judged by the one who can search the depths of our heart, which, last I checked is way above my pay grade.

We are here as Jesus' hands and feet; as his disciples. We need to share a message of hope that no matter what has happened in your life up to now, you can turn away from sin, orient your life to living out the plan that God has for you, and be born into eternal life. Are you ashamed to tell others about your relationship with Christ? If you do tell others, do you convey Jesus' message of hope, or of condemnation? We are not responsible for converting people, nor are we capable of it. We just have to lead people to Jesus, then let him do the rest.

God bless,
P.D.O.