Sermon Tone Analysis

Title

No Condemnation

Outline

Catholic faith has sometimes been seen as guilt management

One realizes that he or she is guilty of sin

One spends life trying to work off the guilt via penance

One never seems to get ahead of their sinning

Now I am not speaking about anyone here, but certainly out there there are many who live like that, or else who give up on the quest for becoming like Jesus

But the scriptures are on the side of redemption, not condemnation

In Jesus’ parable fruit is sought, holiness of life,

and the gardener asks for time to put in even more resources so that the fruit will come

Even the warnings before the parable are designed to turn people from blaming and condemning others to repenting and thus avoiding condemnation - their minds need to be changed to be in accord with Jesus’ teaching

Paul explains: there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus

Jesus has taken the condemnation

“the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death.”

- there is a power given to you to overcome the compulsion to sin

But to enjoy that we must change our minds, refocus from the world’s messages to the Spirit’s messages: “you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.”

And that is the work of growing in holiness, for, for the present, our physical nature tends towards death, but “”if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

11 If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you.”

In other words, we will be changed so that in our renewed bodies we no longer have the negative tendencies, but for now we have the work of reprograming our thoughts - renewing our minds, repentance - through the words of the Spirit so that we change our behavior and live the freedom we have been given.

A tool for this is Evagrius of Pontus’ Talking Back - or one can work on making this oneself

So, Sisters, we of all people should not be living in guilt

We do not let it build up in us, for we have the mass and confession often

We know about reprogramming our minds, even though this is work, and are assisted in the Spirit in doing this

One of our jobs in life is to so live and so share with those who are open that this becomes a characteristic of the Catholic Church in a world full of guilt

Readings

FIRST READING

Romans 8:1–11

1 Hence, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death.

3 For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us, who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

5 For those who live according to the flesh are concerned with the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit with the things of the spirit.

6 The concern of the flesh is death, but the concern of the spirit is life and peace.

7 For the concern of the flesh is hostility toward God; it does not submit to the law of God, nor can it; 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

11 If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you.

RESPONSE

Psalm 24:6

6 Such is the generation that seeks him,

that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.”

Selah

PSALM

Psalm 24:1–4b, 5–6

1 A psalm of David.

The earth is the LORD’s and all it holds,

the world and those who dwell in it.

2 For he founded it on the seas,

established it over the rivers.

3 Who may go up the mountain of the LORD?

Who can stand in his holy place?

4 “The clean of hand and pure of heart,

who has not given his soul to useless things,

what is vain.

5 He will receive blessings from the LORD,

and justice from his saving God.

6 Such is the generation that seeks him,

that seeks the face of the God of Jacob.”

Selah

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Ezekiel 33:11

11 Answer them: As I live—oracle of the Lord GOD—I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.

Turn, turn from your evil ways!

Why should you die, house of Israel?

GOSPEL

Luke 13:1–9

1 At that time some people who were present there told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.

2 He said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?

3 By no means!

But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did! 4 Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?

5 By no means!

But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”

6 And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, 7 he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none.

[So] cut it down.

Why should it exhaust the soil?’ 8 He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; 9 it may bear fruit in the future.

If not you can cut it down.’

”

Notes

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2021 | ORDINARY TIME

SATURDAY OF THE TWENTY-NINTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

YEAR 1 | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

On the same date: Saint John of Capistrano, Priest

First Reading Romans 8:1–11

Response Psalm 24:6

Psalm Psalm 24:1–4b, 5–6

Gospel Acclamation Ezekiel 33:11

Gospel Luke 13:1–9

GREEN