Optional Memorial of Saint Paul VI, Pope

Lectionary: 349

Realize that you were ransomed from your futile conduct,
handed on by your ancestors,
not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished Lamb.

Yesterday Saint Peter reminded us of the ancestors who "prophesied about the grace that was to be yours." Today, we hear him speak of our ancestors who sinned and bequeathed their futile way of life to us. In this case, he is speaking to gentiles whose ancestors knew nothing of Abraham and the covenant with God. But the same standards might apply to the Pharisees who idolized the Law of God rather than God. Their attempts to live without attention to God's spirit also doomed their lives to futility. 

Given a culture which cannot imagine beyond itself, we cannot escape the legacy of past sins. We can neither see the full dimensions of a culture so invested in control, dominance, and power, nor enjoy the freedom offered to us in Christ. 

And so Saint Peter employs graphic imagery to arouse our imaginations and show us something we can hardly imagine -- that we have been purchased with the Precious Blood of Christ. 

The Roman world was familiar with slavery although theirs was not as barbaric as the American experience. The purchase price of millions of men, women, and children was assessed with standards of silver and gold -- much like today. Everyone knows the price of a professional athlete, some CEOs are worth  billions to their corporations though they work no harder than anyone else. Young people are told to develop and sell their brand, some sort of marketable, fungible identity. It should be cultivated in a virtual marketplace where celebrities appear one day in a starry firmament and disappear the following day, leaving no trace. 

The Lord's disciples turn their back on this world's illusions to discover their true worth in God's sight, "the precious Blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished Lamb." Jewish Christians in his congregation knew that unblemished lambs were preferred in the temple sacrifice. Exodus insisted, "Your lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish." (12:5). We can suppose that gentiles were also familiar with the darling qualities of a lamb whose wool was as white as the snow. Even today, I don't recall seeing images of spotted lambs. (But there they are on the Internet!) 

And the Roman world was too familiar with crucifixion. Romans used it to punish malefactors, and signal their complete control of cities and citizens. Americans still hope they can purify their society with the use of capital punishment, a form of human sacrifice. 

Our faith invites us to consider our worth in God's sight as we gaze upon the cross of Christ. He has considered our salvation worth his agony and death. He has done so at the behest of his Father who so loved the world. Even as the world routinely buys, sells, uses, abuses, and discards human beings regardless of their personal dignity, regardless of their identity as beloved children, parents, siblings, and grandchildren -- we see the Cross of Christ rising like the sun over the pagan marketplace to reveal our worth in God's sight. 

We can realize our worth only in the light of the Cross, and we can see others only through the eyes of him who gazes upon the world from his Cross. Nor should we be surprised that the world does not see what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon, and touched with our hands. It concerns the Word of life. 

They might coo over spotless lambs, darling ducklings, suckling piglets, frisky puppies, and sleeping children. But they cannot see what is fiercely apparent to the eyes of faith.