Hebrews 12: 1-4 (Sunday, August 19, 2007)

Last Sunday, the second reading from the book of Hebrews set as a model for Christian faith, the faith of Abraham. Today we might ask, how can we have the enduring faith of Abraham? Christians have what Abraham did not have during his lifetime, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the perfecter of our faith. Our Christian life is a journey, or as the author of Hebrews will prefer to call it, “a race.” It is a race of faith in which Jesus Christ is the final line in which our victory would be declared. As with every race, there are witnesses and we need a lot of preparation so that we will not make a fool of ourselves. Today we had the privilege here in Parkersburg of a half marathon. Those who ran in the marathon have spent many weeks preparing themselves. We were there yesterday morning to watch them. We witnessed the race. Some of the spectators are those who have won the marathon before, many years ago and others are thinking about running a marathon in the future. If everyone in the marathon kept spinning around in one place, why would any of the spectators ever think of running a marathon? The same is the Christian life. Our forefathers in the faith who have gone before us are our witnesses as we try to live the Christian life. They are available to give us all the support that we need to win the race. Also, there are many spectators here on earth who are watching how we live our Christianity. The way we live it out will determine whether they would join the Church or not. As with all those that run a race, we don’t need to keep spinning in one place, they must be progress in our faith. We must keep moving forward.

How do we move forward? The letter to the Hebrews gives us the answer. By ridding ourselves of “every burden and sin that clings to us.” You cannot run a Marathon with five, six and even seven different heavy back packs on you. Even running with one heavy backpack will affect you. The sins in our lives weigh us done as we run this race of salvation. Sometimes we get into this mentality that the little sins don’t matter, it is only the big sins that matter. It is the little sins that lead to big sins. We deceive ourselves that once it is not adultery, fornication, pornography, murder, etc. it is okay. The little sins affect tremendously our Christian race. In most cases, these sins lead us to the bigger once. We need to rid ourselves of sins such as:

Ø Lying
Ø Gossiping
Ø Telling dirty jokes
Ø Using God’s name in vain (e.g. saying, “Jesus Christ” when we are mad with someone.)
Ø Cheating on your time sheet at work
Ø Taking things from work home
Ø Taking sick days when you are not sick
Ø Holding grudges against fellow employees and relatives
Ø Being impatient with your spouse, children or parents
Ø Not helping with house chores
Ø Not cleaning up behind ourselves
Ø Irritating and aggravating your parents (e.g. not taking no for an answer.)
Ø Spending too much time on the cell phone or computer.
Ø Fighting with your sisters and brothers
Ø Not playing with your younger siblings
Ø Disobedience.

We need to get rid of all these things, if we truly want to be the people that God has called us to be. For some of us these things have become so much of our lives that we do not even consider them sins again. There is a saying that when evil persist in a community for more than six months, it becomes a way of life and is acceptable. For us Christians, it is not just acceptable to live in this way. We must begin to rid ourselves immediately of all these sins. God’s plan for us is not to tell lies, gossip, be disobedient, be impatient with other people. His plan is that we be Christ-like and at the end enjoy eternal bliss with him in heaven. The best place for us to begin to work on ourselves towards getting rid of these sins is the confessional. We don’t wait to confess only the so called “big sins” in confession. We need to use frequently this sacrament so that we get the sacramental grace needed to combat small creepy sins that may cause us not to win the race.

We also need to evaluate ourselves constantly to see if we are spinning in one place or we are moving forward. I will strongly recommend what is called a spiritual daily order. At the beginning of the month, you list all your weaknesses that you need to work on for the month. At the end of each day, look through them and every one you did well, mark a plus sign and every one you did not do well, mark a minus sign. At the end of the month, bring it with you to the confessional and show it to your confessor. In this way, you can evaluate yourself with the help of the priest how you are doing. Remember, you cannot do this all on your own. You need the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the great intercessor to help you. Ask her for the graces you need to continue running the race successfully.