by Fr. Tommy Lane
Do you like or dislike yourself? Do you accept yourself? Do you love or hate yourself? Are you angry because of the way you are? We find answers to address these questions in our second reading today:
Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,
as he chose us in
him, before the foundation of the world,
to be holy and without
blemish before him. (Eph 1:3-4)
Before the world was made, God had already chosen you. You were already on the mind of God even before the world was made. Even before the sin of Adam and Eve, the Holy Trinity had already planned Jesus would die for our salvation because God knew we would mess it up. In all the eight billion people in the world today, there is no one identical to you because God loves you. You are unique because God loves you uniquely. That is why your fingerprints and your biometric data can be used to identify you; there is not another you. You are one-off, custom made, bespoke because, as the reading says, God chose you. From the beginning, even before the world was made, God chose you because he wants you for eternal life with him.
The reading goes on to explain that God chose us to be his adopted children through Jesus. Since we are God’s adopted children, God the Father offers us what his Son Jesus has—eternal life with him in heaven. Jesus made up for the mess we make and by doing so made us his brothers and sisters able to inherit eternal life from our Father in heaven. When Jesus was baptized, the heavens opened and the Father spoke and said, “This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” I think we are to imagine the Father saying over each of us as we were baptized, “This is my beloved son/daughter in whom I am well pleased.”
The reading goes on to say that through Jesus we have redemption through his blood and forgiveness of sins. Since we have freedom from our sins, we have freedom from the negativity that wants to beat us up and knock us down (see Luke 1:74). What negativity? Some suffer the negativity of thinking they are bad, that God would have no time for them, that they are a failure. Some dislike themselves and are unwilling to accept themselves. If there is a negative soundtrack playing over and over again in your mind, the first step is to stop that negativity. If you find yourself being negative in your thinking, stop it and be positive. It can take a while to break this pattern of negativity and replace it with positive, but with time and the grace of Jesus, you can do it and have a much better life, the life Jesus wants you to have. There are three opinions of you: your opinion of yourself, others’ opinion of you, and God’s opinion of you which is the one that really matters. Jesus said we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. As ourselves. How can we love our neighbor as ourselves if we don’t love ourselves?
As you heal your negative thinking and replace the negative with the positive, you make yourself ready to receive the love and forgiveness of Jesus. It is more enjoyable to walk in a well-kept garden with beautiful flowers than in a garden that is run down and overgrown with weeds. It is easier to receive the grace of Jesus when your mind is positive, calm, and peaceful. Anyone who suffers from negativity and replaces it with the positive, is in a much better position to receive the love and forgiveness of Jesus. On one occasion Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) Receiving that fullness of life from Jesus is difficult to achieve in an environment that is negative or if you are beating yourself up or putting yourself down. We acknowledge that we mess up sometimes but then we receive the forgiveness of Jesus in confession. The reading says
In him we have
redemption by his blood,
the forgiveness of transgressions,
in
accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us. (Eph
1:7-8)
Jesus has given us a superabundance of his grace (the meaning of the original Greek of Eph 1:8), lavished his grace upon us, showered his grace upon us—not just a few drops, not just a trickle, but showered his grace upon us lavishly in superabundance. The first letter of John reminds us of who we are in the eyes of God:
Think of the love that
the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be called God’s
children; and that is what we are. . .
My dear people, we are
already the children of God
but what we are to be in the future
has not yet been revealed;
all we know is, that when it is
revealed we shall be like him
because we shall see him as he
really is. (1 John 3:1-2)
Healing negative thinking and replacing negative thoughts with positive, makes yourself ready to receive the love and forgiveness of Jesus and then fulfill in our lives the words of the reading:
Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,
as he chose us in
him, before the foundation of the world. (Eph 1:3-4)
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2024
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Fifteenth Sunday of Year B
Welcoming God into our lives 2021
Chosen to be holy and spotless in Christ
Jesus continues to minister to us through his priests 2012
Related Homilies: on rejection of the word of God, see Fourteenth Sunday above
Second Reading: Chosen by God