As we approach the end of the liturgical year, we see
that the readings from last Sunday, today, and next week all have to do with
Judgment Day.Last week, we saw Fr.
Resti focus on the 4 Last Things (Death, Judgment, Hell & Heaven).
In today’s Gospel, we see the parable of talents where
the servants are held accountable for the gifts and calling that they had been
given.All of us will be judged by Jesus one day.Jesus will judge us individually or particularly
at the moment of our death (today’s Gospel).And Jesus will also “come in glory to judge the living and the dead” at the
General Judgment at the end of the
world (next week’s Gospel).How do we as
Christians prepare to give an account?The talents mentioned in the Gospel represent God’s graces and gifts.
We prepare our gifts by both living and dying in the
state of grace.We must not only live
but we must die in the state of friendship with God.We must die in the state of love.You and I have received this sanctifying
grace (God’s very life) – these talents – when we were baptized.Original Sin was removed, and we became
children of the light.We also received
talents and graces when we received the other Sacraments like the Holy
Eucharist or Confirmation.A soul in the state of grace is like the
virtuous wife in today’s First Reading from Proverbs.“When one finds a worthy wife, her value is
far beyond pearls…..the woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”There
is nothing like being in the state of
grace!
This grace in your soul must be protected at all costs.We lose being in the state of friendship with
God through what the Bible calls deadly sin or serious or mortal sin.This is the death of the soul.The soul has chosen to be in the state of separation
from God when it commits deadly or mortal sins.To use the words of the Gospel, we bury our talents through deadly sin.A person that dies in the state of deadly or mortal
sin has freely chosen by their will to be separated from God in Hell.One of my favorite saints when I was a
teenager was St. Dominic Savio who said, “I would rather die than commit one
mortal sin.”St. Gianna Molla, a
modern-day physician, wife and mother, wrote that mortal sin is like a serpent,
and I would rather die a thousand times than offend Our Lord.
[You know, there’s a pious saying said that when God’s
love created the world, God never even thought of Hell.But it was human beings and the fallen angels
that created Hell.]When we break God’s
Commandments, we choose Hell.
So how do we know whether our talents are wasted
through, not a small or venial sin, but through a mortal sin?There are 3 conditions of a mortal sin.To explain these three, I’m going to use a
medical explanation.Those of you in the
medical profession know that one main organ of the body is the heart.Another main organ is the brain.Okay, so the brain & heart.
Now, two of the three conditions are just like the
brain and heart.The brain represents
reason and the heart represents free will.You have to fully know that something is wrong and against God’s law (through
our reason/brain).Second, you have to
give your complete consent in your will (through the heart).[Full knowledge and complete consent.]Third, it is a serious matter.Something is a serious matter when it has to
do with the 10 Commandments or the teachings of the Church.
Why is all this important?Because God loves you!And he wants you to share in his divine
life!(Pause with love.)Mortal sin kills your love.(Avoid using text here and speak from the
heart.)It’s like: God says to us, “You
fully knew what destroys your relationship with me, you who intimately follow
me, and you still completely and fully chose it over me in your will and heart.This doesn’t just hurt me in a small venial
way, God says, but the deliberate act was a serious or deadly break with my
love.”In the Passion of Jesus, it was
those closest to Jesus that hurt his tender Heart the most.
To use examples, there are 2 serious pastoral problems
many bishops and dioceses are reporting today.One example is if a Catholic authentically does not fully know that
their marriage must be in good standing with the Church, that Catholic is
missing one of the three conditions of a mortal sin.So if that Catholic didn’t know, for
instance, that you’re not supposed to cohabitate (i.e., live with your
boyfriend or girlfriend) or only marry civilly or get married by a Protestant
minister instead of a Catholic priest or deacon, if the Catholic honestly just didn’t know this and their
conscience was not formed properly, then it is either no sin or a venial sin.
However, once that Catholic has been made aware that
she or he must be in good standing, now that Catholic has full knowledge.And if the other 2 conditions, where they
still completely consent to this serious matter without correcting the
situation are present, then the Catholic (objectively speaking) has met all the
3 conditions of a mortal sin.In this
case, the salvation of this person’s eternal soul is in jeopardy.(Pause.)
Another example is the gravity of missing a Sunday
Mass or Holy Days of Obligation.Perhaps
you did not know that if you deliberately miss Sunday Mass, with the exception
of being sick or homebound, it is a serious matter.But now if the person fully knows (reason or
mind) & completely consents (will or heart) over this serious matter, then
missing Sunday Mass is a mortal sin— and this needs to be confessed.
All mortal sins should be confessed in the Sacrament
of Reconciliation or Confession with a priest.The priesthood has the authority by Christ to forgive and absolve
serious sins.Receiving Communion at
Mass does not forgive mortal sins.Receiving
Communion and praying other prayers of the Mass removes venial sins but not
serious sin.In fact, the opposite is
true.A soul in the state of mortal sin
receiving Communion is actually committing a sacrilege if it is not in the
state of grace.Confession restores love and the state of grace
brings us back to friendship with God.It
is how you double your talents instead of burying them.
There’s a website called www.MassTimes.org which
details all the Mass times and Confession times all over the U.S.And here at St. Catherine’s, we have a Parish
Advent Reconciliation Service in December.What better way to end the liturgical year and start the new liturgical
year in December than by increasing our talents in Confession!
At the end of our lives, we will be accountable for
our choices, for good or evil.St. Paul writes
in the Second Reading in his Letter to the Thessalonians, “For you yourselves
know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night.… Let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us
stay alert and sober.”Our talents
either move us toward God or away from God.Let us live in the state of love and friendship with God.And let us die in the state of grace, so that
we will hear those blessed words of Our Lord and Master, “Well done, my good
and faithful servant.Come, share your
master’s joy.”
