Sacrifice of the Cross and the work of Redemption

(1) - the 8th Sunday after the Pentecost(2024- 7-14)

Dear Faithful, I'd like to talk about the Sacrifice of the Cross and God's plan of Salvation of mankind during 4 Sundays as a series of sermons.

Before we talk about it, today I'd like to begin with the topic of Creation and the Fall of the first men.

1. Plan of Creation

The Almighty God who is love itself willed to create man who is His own image and likeness.

(1) Creation of man : child of God

When God created man, man was not in a merely natural state but in a supernatural one. God gave His own life to man at the moment of creation of man. This life of God in man, we call it Sanctifying grace. Man was born into the world, not as a mere man, but as a child of God.

(2) Man : social being

Besides, man was created as a social being. God created man as male and female, and He willed them to beget their children and establish human society by this. When Eve was made from Adam's side, the first marriage of the mankind happened.

(3) Man's mission : to beget child of God in world

The mission which first men had from God was to preserve the life of God in themselves, and to beget their children with this God's life, that is, to pass down this life to the children, and eventually make the society of these children of God in the world. To realize the Kingdom of God in the world.

God wanted this mission to be fulfilled through the free co-operation of men, to whom He gave His commandment not to eat of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

He willed it to be accomplished through the obedience of men.

As the reward for this, God ordained that men will confirm the life of God within themselves and fully possess it.

2. Fall of first parents

In this process, God used the serpent as a means for testing them.

He allowed the serpent to tempt them, so that they may fulfill their mission even despite the temptation, and at the same time He may make the final judgement and condemnation on Satan through this.

As you all know, they failed in this test.

Although they already heard God's words not to eat of the fruit, they acted according the words of the serpent. By this, they failed in the test and sinned against God.

(1) Consequences of the Original Sin

As a consequence, immediately they lost the life of God. They were fallen to the state of mere natural man, even as an enemy of God, since they sinned out of pride to become God by their own power.

Now, in Justice, men had to pay back the infinite satisfaction to God. The offense which they made to God was one of the worst : they were the closest creatures to God, endowed with the very life of God in themselves. They offended God who is infinite.

Furthermore, men came to be under the influence of Satan, since our first parents listened to his words and acted according to these.

Besides, there came disorders and confusion in man himself.

At the beginning, all the faculties and activities of men were governed well, having God as the supreme principle and rule, everything was in order. 

But now, after the fall, this order was turned over due to sin and they had to constantly fight against the sinful desires for pleasure which are against the reason.

(2) Destined to suffer death & eternal punishment

On top of these consequences, man had to suffer death due to this sin.

Death of man happens when the soul is separated from the body.

At the creation of man, God granted the preternatural gift of immortality to them, in order to ensure that they may keep the life of God within them well. But this gift was withdrawn after the sin, and as a consequence, the death followed them.

Even after the death, the soul had to suffer eternal punishment since the guilt of sin against God was in their soul. This is due to the fact that a being with a free will sinned against the infinite God.

(3) Original Sin : over whole mankind

This problem of Original Sin wasn't simply about Adam and Eve. All mankind was related to this issue. Because Adam was created not merely as an individual man, but as a head of whole mankind. If he had not committed sin but had fulfilled the mission, through this meritorious act which was done as a head of all men, all his descendants were to have & enjoy the life of God in themselves. The same logic applies to the Original Sin. This sin of Adam who is the head of mankind was to pass down to all generations thereby the whole mankind was placed under the influence of Original Sin.

It is truly a miserable state. All men became severed from God, all men became enemies of God. They absolutely need someone to re-connect between themselves and God like a bridge, but there is no one who has the right and ability to do so. There is no one at all, since every man is a mere creature, and a enemy of God.

In this desperate situation, God out of His mercy ordained to send His own Son, the second person of the Trinity, Our Lord Jesus Christ, to the world in order to save the mankind. Our Lord who is God became man and made the bridge between God and men, and began the work of redemption through His death on the Cross. We will talk about the further detail about this topic next week.

My dear faithful, today we talked about God's plan of Creation and the Fall of men as a background story for the plan of redemption.

1) Firstly, we realized God's love to let men participate in His plan thereby to give His life in full possession as a reward. There were also other important elements : man as social being, created as male and female, the marriage bond between them. These are essential conditions for fulfilling their mission to beget children of God as their fruit of bond. We can't overlook the importance of family as well. It is the most fundamental and basic unit, a building block for accomplishing the Kingdom of God on earth which is the final goal of mankind.

2) We also talked about the Original Sin and the Fall of men.

Men lost the life of God due to Original Sin and they had to face the destiny of death, even the eternal punishment.

Let us briefly draw some spiritual fruits from these considerations.

First, we can clearly recognize the tactics of the world and Satan against the Catholics. Needless to say, they try to destroy the sacred bondage of marriage and the family in every possible way with their utmost efforts.

Divorce, contraception, abortion, homosexuality... All these evident sins are committed and even legalized by civil laws.

Second fruit is the desire for living our life faithfully for our mission as God's children. We often feel discouraged and isolated when we come across so many temptations and trials, but we should remember that each one of us is not merely an individual. Each one can be a beginning point and principle within his family or society, as a dear instrument of God in His works of salvation of souls. We should not be neglectful with these duties of ours.

Lastly, sincere contrition and deep gratitude towards God. From this understanding of sin, how serious and horrible it is with its consequences, we should have a true contrition for our sins and lead a renewed life of faith.

Besides, we should sincerely thank God for allowing us to have this life of God which was lost by parents, through the grace of our baptism. About all the graces from other sacraments and mass as well, we can never thank enough to God.

In order to lead our life as worthy children of God, expecting the day when all the souls will come back to God and whole mankind will be saved,

let us take part in the offering of the sacrifice of the mass with our whole heart and with our best.

"God created man to his own image... male and female he created them" (Gen 1:27).

"the Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth: 

and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. (Gen 2:7)"

 Fr.  Longinus  Kim