Praised be Jesus and Mary. Today in the
Franciscan calendar we celebrate Saint
Hyacinth. She was from a wealthy family
and kind of brought that spirit of the
world with her in the convent. I mean not
that she spread it to the other sisters
but in her cell she had all of her
little knickknacks and creature comforts
and she got sick one time and the
chaplain had to come in and to her cell
to give her communion and he was shocked
by all this superfluous
stuff in her cell and he reprimanded her
and she took that reprimand to heart and
repented of her sins as we heard in the
opening prayer of this mass. She made
atonement for those sins of hers and
not living that spirit of poverty
that she aspired to. In the reading
this morning from Saint Paul there's a
line at the end which could be a little
confusing if misunderstood. It says that
where there is the forgiveness of sin
there's
no longer needed and offering for sin.
You know Saint Paul makes it sound like
we don't need any more sacrifice. Now we
have to look at this in context.
He says, you know, every priest stands
daily offering frequently those same
sacrifices that can never take away sins.
But this one,
That is, Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins and took his seat forever at the right hand of God.
The point that he's making is that the sacrifice of Jesus, because it actually takes away sin,
has made perfect forever those who are being sanctified.
Now, this perfection that St. Paul is talking about doesn't imply that just because Jesus offered himself on the cross for us
means that we're now perfect.
I think we all know better than that.
We must recall that our Lord commanded us to be perfect.
Just as his heavenly Father is perfect.
He commanded us.
It wasn't a suggestion.
This perfection can be understood in two ways.
One is that we have overcome sin in our lives.
We have grown in holiness to the point that we're transformed.
We're transformed into Christ himself.
The second way it could be understood is that when one's sins are forgiven, they're gone.
So that when God looks upon our soul, he doesn't see any of those sins.
No matter what may have happened in the course of our lives.
When we confess our sins, they are forgiven.
They are gone.
Of course, the temporal punishment due to our sins still remain,
which we must make reparation for.
And that's what St. Hyathin, whom we commemorate today, did so well.
The challenge for us, then, is to stay out of sin.
We know that we have the sacrifice of our Lord, which continues to be offered.
It's not a new sacrifice.
It's the one sacrifice which continues to be offered until the end of time.
And that one sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin is offered.
So that any sins we do commit,
can be removed.
And having our sins forgiven means that each one of us, then,
has the opportunity to grow in holiness.
The sins no longer weigh us down,
but rather through the forgiveness of sin that comes in the confessional
and through the grace which comes,
through the forgiveness of sin that comes in the confessional,
through receiving our Lord in Holy Communion,
we're lifted up.
And we become that good soil that our Lord talks about in the Gospel reading today.
If, on the other hand,
we allow all the sins and all the problems
to continue within our souls,
it chokes off the Word,
and it doesn't even give it an opportunity to grow.
If the heart is so hardened by sin,
it's like a walking path.
And Satan just comes and snatches the Word away.
You know, a prophet says nothing.
But if having our sins removed,
And recognizing that what the Lord has done for us
spurs us on to seek union with Christ
and to unite ourselves with his sacrifice
through our own sacrifices,
then we indeed are being perfected
and our sins are removed.
You know, we're growing in holiness
and we're on the road to becoming perfect
as our Heavenly Father is perfect.