Choosing Salvation for our World

 

November 2, 2025

The second reading repeats one of the common tenets of our faith, namely, that ‘Christ died for the ungodly’, for the sinners, and through his death and life reconciled us with God. Additionally, today’s readings also make it clear that this is a mystery that will take place in our lives if we are his true followers. For it is only ‘'if we have been united with him in a death like his,’ will we ‘be united with him in a resurrection like his’.   And this is the part that we often seem to forget, namely that we are called to be an active part of the salvific action of Jesus.  

The paradox is that though salvation is ultimately a gift, yet it is still a gift that we must work towards.  I understood this paradox when I saw my son offer his hand to his five-month old daughter so that she could pull herself up and sit up. Offering his hand was indeed a ‘gift’ but she still had to put in the effort to convert the offer into the actual gift of being able to sit up. So how do we participate in this salvation that is also a gift?

I have often spoken of the concept of how we create our own hell. When we are selfish, or cruel or even just too involved with our own problems, we often create our own hell. We create a world in which we do not let goodness in, or even worse, sometimes, a world in which we repel goodness. The world that Jesus entered was that kind of hell. The Jews for too long had seen themselves as the persecuted ones, the chosen ones, the holy ones. And they were all desperately waiting for the King who would come and lead them, who would destroy their enemies, and who would reward the ones who kept the Jewish laws and worshipped God.

In doing this, the Jews created their own hell, a world of resentment of all the ‘others’, especially those 'others' who had conquered them over the centuries, i.e. the Assyrians, the Persians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Seleucid kings, the Hasmonean kings, and the Romans.  Among themselves they also created a hell of the religion they claimed to follow, where following rules that benefited no one, except those who were already advantaged among themselves, became more important than anything else , a religion that insisted that they should keep themselves separate from all others, and so on.  In short, they created a world in which anger and vengeance, and not love and sharing were fostered.  It was perhaps not their fault that they created this hell. Somehow, living as they did over centuries in an antagonistic mode with other religions and cultures, they did not know of any other kind of world. For centuries that was the only way they knew how to live - follow the rules of our religion, and God will reward us with a kingdom.

And then Jesus came and taught them  (and us) a new way - a way of love, of forgiveness, of calling even the Samaritan/enemy a neighbour, of purifying our hearts instead of our bodies, of searching for the Kingdom of God inside our own hearts, of including even the Gentiles, the non-believers, in God’s embrace. This new way was the way that Jesus, the long-expected Messiah, taught, which would indeed save those who chose to follow his way, for it would help them build their own heaven in the world around them.

But the Jews of Jesus’ time are not the only ones who created their own hell, not in his time and not today. Today too there are those of us who are too wrapped up in ourselves, who believe that if we have been wronged, we have a right to hit back, who believe that it is ok to grab whatever we can for ourselves, because that is how the world works; who believe that it is ok to be dishonest and corrupt because everyone does it. We see ourselves in competition with other individuals, other communities, other nations, to get more and more for ourselves, to safeguard ourselves, to save ourselves. And those of us who do follow this path are not ‘bad’ people. Somehow we have come to believe that this is the only ‘practical’ way to live our lives;  we do not know any other way of living. And, unfortunately, if we choose to live like this then we too contribute towards building a world around us that is equally vengeful, dishonest, and selfish, and in turn create our own hell.

So how do we participate in salvation, how do we  become ‘God’s fellow-workers’ (1 Cor: 3 9) and  ‘co-heirs with Christ,   (Romans 8:17).  It seems to me that we participate in the salvific work of Jesus by living the kind of life that Jesus did, so that we can create for others an example of how others too can save themselves from the kind of world we tend to build for ourselves.  

Our goal is therefore not to baptise others, but to teach by example how to live the way Jesus did - which is, of course, what being a Christian really is all about. And in doing that we will be united with him in his death and resurrection - for when we do this, or try to do this, we will surely suffer like he did; but like him we will also surely create a better world for ourselves and for others. For as the reading today reminds us ‘if we have been united with him in a death like his,’ we too will be ‘be united with him in a resurrection like his’. 

First Reading:  Wisdom 3:1-9

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them.
In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be a disaster, and their going from us to be their destruction, but they are at peace.
For though in the sight of others they were punished, their hope is full of immortality.

Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself;   like gold in the furnace he tried them, and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them.

In the time of their visitation they will shine forth and will run like sparks through the stubble.
They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them forever.
Those who trust in him will understand truth, and the faithful will abide with him in love,
because grace and mercy are upon his holy ones, and he watches over his elect.

Second Reading: Romans 5: 5-11 or Romans 6: 3-9

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die.  But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.  Much more surely, therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.  But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Or

Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so we might no longer be enslaved to sin.  For whoever has died is freed from sin.  But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

Gospel: John 6: 37-40

Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away,  for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day.  This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.