Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
We live lives characterized by guilt and shame. Media advertising is built upon this premise. After all, how do you get someone to buy something trivial and unnecessary? Convince her that she will be a bad housekeeper without this new mop, or she will be a bad mother without these fruit snacks, or he will be a bad husband without this nifty new phone, or that somehow you will be a poor employee if you take the wrong kind of antacid.
Of course guilt and shame go deeper than that. We all have our own loads of shame on account of our sins. You and I are born with it. Inherited from Adam, sin infects us from the moment of conception. Sin is at the root of all bad and evil things in this world. Because of sin, Lorna died, and likewise you and I shall all die.
But death in the body is not something for us to fear. We shall not be put to shame in our bodies, because Christ lives in us. Each of us, like Lorna, has been buried with Christ, in order that we may live in Him who is the Resurrection and the Life. We are not ashamed of the frailties of our mortal bodies because we know that death no longer has dominion over us. Christ died the death to sin once for all, and we have already faced the judgment when we were plunged into the waters of Holy Baptism and pulled up into new life in Christ Jesus.
We do not live in fear or sorrow, as those who have no hope. We do not live in shame, as those who have no redemption. No, we live in peace and joy, because we know that our Redeemer lives. And so we say with St. Paul, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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