7no3Ti

HTHO C

Series; First Words

and Lasting

Impressions

Talk iG: "God’s Work

Gets Done”

REV. JAMES F.

FINLEY, C.S.P.

MARCH 8, 19S8





If there is no business but the Father's

and Christ is about it -- is He to be

about it alone? The answer is in His

whole life, but particularly in the second

recorded word Jesus speaks in the

Gospel.

A crowd had gathered at the side o£

the Jordan River to listen to the new

preacher who had come out of the desert.

A certain John, who baptized people and

told them the kingdom of God was at

hand, had fascinated the inhabitants of

the area with his strange dress of goat

skins and his words of penance. He had

told them he was merely preparing the

way, that One would come after him who

was preferred before him. One Whose shoe

he was not worthy to tie. Suddenly the

very Person of whom John was speaking

-

Christ • walked into the crowd and down

to John.

Christ presented Himself for baptism

and made ready to move into the water.

John was confused and hesitated; he

pleaded to be excused: "I ought to be

baptized by Thee and comest Thou to

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me?'' Christ's answer is like all God's

answers to men — direct and deliberate:
"Suffice it to be so now,'*' Jesus soys,

"for so it becomes us to fulfill all

justice."

The second lesson of Christ had been

established — the work He was on might
be His Father's, but He would have oil

of creation effect it with Him. Here, in

one scene, is the sign of that fact. John

was the instrument and water was the

agent that Christ put to use to manifest

His presence among men; for when He

stepped out of the river the heavens

were opened and a voice was heard to

soy, "This is My beloved Son in whom I

am well pleased."

The whole creation was used to co-

operate in showing forth Christ — the
things of earth, the things of heaven oncj

the men who lived on one and were des--

tined for the other. The whole of creation

was to be like a universal voice crying

out: "This is My beloved Son. . ."

The hint that creation was to cooperate

was given in the prophetic use of men

and creatures in the Old Testament; but,

Christ brought the hints to dramatic in-

carnation by being born of the Blessed

Virgin, using her flesh and blood to

fashion for Himself the chief instrument



for saving men. There were to be other

instruments all along the way, instru-

ments for His time:

A star would light the way to where

He lay. . .angels would announce His

birth. . .animals would worm Him. .

.

flowers of the field would serve for

illustration; grain would feed Him.

He would walk upon a sea or quiet its

raging waters and it would hold Him

up as the Son of God. A road beneath

His feet would be strewn with palm

branches because He walked upon it,

and it would carry Him along to the

cries of "Hosanna to the Son of

David"; a mountain would be content

to be His pulpit and a breeze would

be eager to carry His words to the

crowd beneath Him. Dead men would

rise at His touch to show His power

and reveal Him os the anointed one. .

.

even the very devils themselves

would obey His command to depart,

and cry out His identity to the world:

"What have we to do with Thee, Son

of God?"

And instruments for later generations:

Water would give itself 'over to the

hand of God that it might become the

element for a sacrament.' Blessed and

set aside for baptism, it would bring

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forth Christ from a soul born in

Original Sin. Oil would give itself

over and let its anointing qualities be

supemoturolized so that they may

confirm a child in Christ or conform a

priest to Christ or console a sick

person with Christ. Bread and wine

would not refuse to give over their

substance and be changed into the

Body and Blood of Christ that we

might be nourished with the sure food

of a salvation.

The whole world was to cooperate in

the work of salvation. The whole world

does cooperate. . .except, one creature. .

.

man! . . .the one creature for whom all the

work has been done. The creature for

whom the roads were walked and the

mountains climbed and the water digni-

fied and the oil blessed and the bread and

wine consecrated. Man could. . .man would

...man did. . .man does...cry out in op-

position to the plan:

"Non ServiamI ... I will not serve!"

Oh! some men have served. , .1 do not

mean to be discouragingly and so pessi-

mistically dolorous. Many have served but

cooperation is not for some or many. . .co-

operation is for all. We are all God's and

all of heaven is for all of us. Democracy

does not equalize people. . .but the need

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to be saved does...the principle of

equality is in the purpose of God. Salva-

tion is the world's vocation and therefore

the first vocation of the intelligent part of

that world. Man's part in the plan of God

is to live in line with all the rest of cre-

ation and cooperate, intelligently.

But where marriage is ruptured and sun-

dered and taken on and put off until it be-

comes a barren joke, what intelligent co-

operation do the wanton participants of

double and triple marriages show to those who

must attempt the perilous adventure after them?

Where morals become a gag upon loose-

minded, loose-living personalities and

they flaunt their vulgarities and ob-

scenities and find imitators among the

rest of the people, what cooperation do

the licentious show to all who coura-

geously live a God-given code?

Where graft is acceptable and you get

as much as you con while the getting is

good; where sex-experience becomes a

hygienic nesessity; and moral standard

bearers become bores to polite society;

where the catch phrase of endeavor

becomes nothing higher than the maxim

of a bunch of corner hoodlums: "What-

ever you do. . .DON'T GET CAUGHT!". .

.

What cooperation do any of these show

to a plan or a purpose or a Providence

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that wants all men to be saved?

To void this purpose, to oppose this

plan, to scout this Providence is to

hamper Christ, the Worker. Salvation

cannot be achieved for men if man

violates the orderliness of God. Sin is

against God and therefore sin is a refusal

to serve God in whatever port of His

plan comes to us and a rejection that

affects all others trying to move forward

in the plan. The problem of solvation

becomes complicated because man com-

plicates it with uncooperativeness. Sin

impedes the Worker, Christ, and every

sinner penalizes himself and every other

soul. Sin is not an isolated break in the

plan. It is a chain reaction whose con-

sequences carry on for generations.

Witness the sin of Adam. . . it did not end

in the Garden, it has reached to us.

God's purpose has worked against that

sin and every other sin since that time.

The answer to the disorder of Adam was

Christ. "Did you not know that I must

be about My Father's business?"

The only members of the human race

who hove found peace are those who

assent to the overall purpose of life that

all men be saved -- those who see every

action that happens in the world as part

of that need. Tragedies, losses, defeats,

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humiliations, failures, tears, sorrows do

not come into their lives as things that

God does to them. . .it is not "Why dost

Thou do this to me?". . ."Why did you do

these things to us?", . .rather they

persist in realizing that Christ is about

the Father's business of saving the

world. Somewhere, someone has failed. .

.

the chain reaction of the failures has

come down to them and their duty is to

adjust the plan with Christ that He might

accomplish the business of God the

Father.

Christ is working almost alone today.

From the oppeorence of the world around

us, one gathers that you wouldn't hove to

fight your way through a crowd to get to

Him. We have statues of all kinds of

Christs. . .Christ the Worker and Christ

the King and Christ the Savior. . .but none

of these symbolize what might better be

the real idea of Christ today. . .Christ

the rejected. We have theorizers and

thinkers and writers and puzzlers and

pundits and preachers who keep coming

forth with their little talks of what's

wrong with Christianity for men, and you

realize that they do not know what they

are talking about. There is nothing wrong

with Christianity for men. . .the wrong is

that men are not for Christianity. ,

.



they are for themselves. Christ has not

failed men. . .men hove failed Christ and

been uncooperative.

You can serve Him best now by deter-

mining to cooperate at least in your own

salvation. If you cooperate in your own

salvation, you won't, then, thwart the

plan for others. The old expression:

"No one goes to hell alone," is equally

true of Heaven. . .no one goes to Heaven

alone. You can't be saved alone because

to be saved you will hove to give your-

self to Christ, once you have given your-

self He will use you for someone else,

os He shows us how He used all other

things in creation.

Aiding Him in saving yourself will be

aiding Him in saving others. . .you will

be His hands or feet or tongue or heart..

You will be His signs and posts along

the way showing Him forth. . .cooperating

with Him will bring the same thing that

it brought the day that John cooperated.

The Heavens will be opened and a voice

will be heard saying: "This is my

beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.'^

You may not hear the voice as it

strikes in the heart of someone who sees

you cooperating with Christ. . .but it is

not necessary for you to hear the voice

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to do your job. . .it is enough for any of

us to work with Christ, to be dignified as

is water that others may be reborn in

faith; supernaturalized as is oil that

others may be confirmed in faith; to be

transformed as is bread and wine that

others may be sustained in faith. ..it is

enough to cooperate.

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