Homily

There is a walking path that runs along Pioneer Parkway all the way up to Harlow Road. It is named after Rosa Parks. On December 1st in 1955, Rosa Parks was coming home from work on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. And when the "Whites Only” section of the bus filled up, the bus driver ordered all the black passengers to move farther to the back of the bus so that there would be more room up front for the white riders. Rosa Parks refused to move. She was arrested, but her courageous refusal to accept second-class citizenship sparked the modern civil rights movement of the 20th century. Could it have happened some other way, or could it have been some other person? Probably so, but it really doesn't matter because one woman, at one moment of time, made a decision that began a tremendous movement for change in our country, and greater freedom for all Americans.

This past Friday, we celebrated the Annunciation, where again, the decision of a single woman changed the course of human history. When Mary said "yes” to the angel, her decision would bring forth a Savior who would also be the One, the single person, Who by His death and resurrection would not be simply a part of a freedom movement, but One Who would be able to grant freedom to all who asked it of Him. And the freedom He grants is not limited to civil rights. It is the freedom from sin. It is the freedom to gain divine life. It is the freedom to live for God.

St. Paul writes in the 5th chapter of Romans:

"For if, by the transgression of one person, death came to rule through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one person Jesus Christ.”

What a great truth. In the natural world, people strive to overcome the fear of death by attempting to gain pleasure, power, wealth, material satisfaction, emotional stimulation and every other means possible to prop themselves up against the end of their mortal lives.

But there is One, and only One, Who does not offer us protection against death, but instead, victory over death — the same One Who calls us to reign with Him in life, both here and in the life that is yet to come. He gave up His life for our life, and that symbol of victory is before our eyes here today — One man, One Lord, One Savior.

Would Christ have died for us if we were the only person left on earth? That question has been asked and answered a long, long time ago, and we understand that Jesus would have given His life for me or for you if we were the only person on earth, so great is His love. And I bring this up because I think it is easier to think of Christ as giving His life for all people, of whom I am just one, just part of the crowd, just a member of humanity – than it is to think of Him dying out of His personal love for me, as an individual. It is easier to believe Jesus died out of love for all people, than it is to believe that He died out of a personal love for me. And yet, that is the truth.

We have been given divine life and grace by the Lord not as generic members of His Body, the Church, but as unique individuals, men, women and children – each one of us as infinitely important to Him as the next. Each one of us personally called and personally graced by the Lord. So there is no one else who can love your spouse, or your children, or your parents as you do. There is no one else who can help a person in need exactly as you do, who can comfort a sorrowful heart, who can teach a lesson of faith, who can sing a hymn of praise – there is no one else who can persevere, who can seek out virtue, who can ask for forgiveness, who can hope in the promises – there is no one else in this whole wide world who can live in grace and share that grace with words and deeds and prayers in exactly the same way that you do. No one else can leave your personal gifts of Christ's grace in this world but you. And there is no love or grace that Christ wishes more for anyone else than He wishes for you to share in. You are not generally loved; you are specifically, uniquely, personally, individually and intimately loved by Christ crucified, so let us draw near the cross even more aware and grateful for what the Lord has done, and is doing for us.

And let us remember that we are also individually charged to be instruments of His grace in this world in action, in places, with persons – in ways that no one else can do as we do. We may never be in the history books – time is running out for me unless I'm able to catch some new and unknown disease or something – but if we live so that when people see our face, they see Christ's face, and if when we work they see Christ's work, and if, in our love, they see Christ's love – then we are leaving a serious and effective mark of grace in this world, and our names will be in the Book of Life.