Lent 2

Lent 2 (Mark 8:31-38)
“For what will it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”

Our Heavenly Father’s Plan of salvation is a dynamic interplay of joy, sorrow and glory. The joy begins at the Christmas crib. The sorrow finds expression at the cross. The glory is the new life of the resurrection and the new way of living the Holy Spirit brings to the world at Pentecost.

As Jesus prepared for the terrible events of Holy Week and Good Friday, he instructed his apostolic leadership team in the essential facts of the Plan of Salvation. Not unpredictably, the apostles were horrified at Jesus’ teaching. They did not expect the cross to be pivotal in the Plan of Salvation. They did not want the cross to be the plan of salvation.

As with virtually everyone in their generation, and as with virtually everyone in all subsequent generations, they wanted the quick and easy path. They wanted the path of pride and power. They could not even imagine the path of sacrificial love. It made no sense to them. It makes no sense to most of us most of the time.
And so, Jesus challenges the apostles as He challenges us. What do you really want? Who do you want to become?

The Bible is a record of the path of power and its consequences. Dozens of people over centuries of time recorded their observation of human choice and human behavior. They all came to the same conclusion. Jesus expresses that conclusion in a succinct statement for all people of all time.

What does is profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?
What would you ask for in exchange for your soul? Another way of asking this question is where are your priorities in contradiction to God’s priorities for your life?

God’s priority is for you to be the beloved of the co-eternal Beloved, Jesus Christ. Jesus sets before us the three priorities of the Beloved: Love God with all of your heart, soul and mind. Love others as you love yourself. We love God through worship, the highest form of love. We love others through an attitude of compassion and in acts of service. We love ourselves by offering our particular sins to God to be transformed back into their original virtues.

Love is the defining principle by which God created our species and each and every one of us.

God did not create us to live independently of His personal presence in this world. As we choose to make God second in our lives we make God last. As we choose to ignore or subvert the Summary of the Law we begin to lose our souls. We begin to lose the meaning and purpose God gave us.

During the Middle Ages in Western Europe people pondered this aspect of human nature. They explored this aspect of human behavior in many ways. One way was the story of Dr. Faustus.

As an old man facing death, Dr. Faustus entered into a contract with the devil. He pledge his immortal soul to the devil in exchange for 30 more years of youthful vitality, intellectual superiority, unrestricted pleasure and immunity from the law of cause and effect.

In some versions of the story the demon is horrified at the proposal. In others he seduces Faustus with promises of fame fortune and pleasure. Of course, the 30 years pass quickly. Faustus cultivates the arrogance that just as the demon comes to collect his soul Faustus will repent and cheat the devil of his payment.

As the contract is fulfilled the day of payment arrives. It is then the devil restores Faustus to the law of cause and effect. The impact of 30 years of sin now hits Faustus full force. His pride turns to despair as he realizes what he has done to himself by his own choice in pursuing a life of sin without experiencing the consequences of that sin until the moment of his death.

Faustus cannot repent as his pride morphs into despair. He realizes too late the meaning of the phrase: “the devil’s bargain.”

Faustus is a cautionary tale that describes a present reality. This world of duality is the realm of choice. Every choice we make contributes to the formation of our soul and of our soul’s eternal destiny. God wants each of us to choose love as the principle by which we form our souls. As we choose love we choose the eternal nature of God and enter into eternal life here and now.

The obstacle for a soul to choose love is the original choice our species made to separate from God. That separation produces a soul that lives according to the principle of self will and pride. The apostles expressed this self will and pride as they attempted to rebuke Jesus for even considering the cross as the path to salvation.

Preeminently, the cross is the symbol of steadfast holy sacrificial unconditional love. The way of the cross is expressed in Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of his arrest. That prayer is: Heavenly Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will but Thy will be done.

Jesus prayed that prayer from the center of Divine Love and compassion. In his humanity he did not rush to martyrdom for a cause. In his love he accepted the way of the cross to save humanity from sin and death.

There is no quick fix to sin and death. There are no short cuts in the path to reunification with God. There is only Jesus dying on the cross. There is only Jesus risen from the dead. There is only Jesus who is the original pattern for humanity.
What do you choose in place of God? Where is God not first in your priorities? Where does your pride and self will reject God’s laws through actual sin and attempts to ignore the reality of cause and effect by ignoring the consequences of those sins? Where do you live your life from the place of a demand backed by a threat?

It is never too late in this world to repent. It becomes more difficult for those who have lived a life in separation from God. The pride of separation always leads to despair. Pride says: I don’t need God. Despair says: even God cannot help me now.
During Lent, ask the Holy Spirit to show you where your priorities are not compatible with God’s perfect plan for your life. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you which particular sin you need to yield to God for God to transform back into its original virtue.

Jesus loves us with and everlasting love. He passionately desires we choose love and in choosing love that we choose life. To that end Jesus reminds us of the laws of choice, cause and effect, and consequence as he asks: “For what will it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”