[Isaiah 53:10-11; Hebrews 4:14-16; Mark 10:35-45]

Here are twenty-five facts of life.

The first one is easy to forget. In fact, I’ll bet you forgot it several times this week.

1. God loves you.
2. God wants you to make it to heaven.
3. It cost God a lot to make sure you make it to heaven. Ransoms aren’t cheap.
4. God ransomed you through the suffering and death of His son. Now get this, because a lot of people don’t: THAT’S HOW MUCH YOU’RE WORTH.
5. That’s how much the other guy is worth, too. Even the girl you can’t stand. Even the guy you make fun of.
6. God wants you to be taken care of. And he wants the other people to be taken care of as well.
7. God teaches us the key to happiness. He doesn’t keep it a secret. We’ll get to the key later. First, let’s consider the opposition.
8. The world also preaches a way to happiness. But most of the time, it’s lying. Check this rule out carefully: think of all the things that are being promoted to you on campus and in the dorms which are supposed to make you happy, but which turn out to be big, ugly disappointments. Or maybe even nightmares.
9. Most people who spend their lives chasing the world’s route to happiness, whether through money, fame, sex, stuff, power, or whatever, never end up being happy. In fact, they carry around an emptiness inside that never goes away, that can never be filled as long as they continue living the way they’re living.
10. Oh yeah, the key: Now this is God’s key to happiness; it’s also the key to love, to fulfillment and, ultimately, to greatness.
11. Portraits of human greatness: They all found ways to serve the world. That might be an interesting paper topic.
12. Enough about greatness. Let’s talk about sin. After all, sin is a big part of our lives. We all do it, every day. In fact, most of us probably do far more sinning than we do serving. Then we wonder why we’re so seldom happy.
13. Yeah. Not happy. Sin causes suffering.
14. Sometimes others suffer because of our sin. Five guys get drunk in a dorm room on Saturday night. Somebody else is going to suffer before the night is over. And there’s something so sick about our society that it actually convinces good young men and women that there’s something praiseworthy about getting drunk and causing others to suffer.
15. We suffer because of our sin. Sometimes it’s easy to see. Sometimes it’s not so easy. Example: You’re nursing a grudge. Have you ever realized how much suffering that grudge is causing you?
16. Sin spreads like wildfire. Consider the Gospel. First James and John get lost in the sins of pride and selfish ambition. A few minutes later, all of the apostles are in the middle of a big squabble. Finally, Jesus had to intervene.
17. There is a price to pay for sin. A price that each one of us has to face in our existence. Sometimes the price comes immediately. Sometimes it takes longer to work itself out. But eventually, each one of us will have to pay a price for every wrong thing that we’ve ever done.
18. Enough about sin. Let’s talk about God again. You know, the greatest thing about God—and only Christianity has a handle on this: The greatest thing about God is that He knows what it’s like to be human. Not because He made us, but rather, because in Jesus Christ He’s gone through it with us.
19. He knows what you’re like. He knows what it’s like to be human. He knows what it’s like to be hungry, and thirsty, to be tired and smelly. He knows what it’s like to have a broken heart. He knows what it’s like to be suffer terror. He knows what it’s like to struggle against temptation—remember what Hebrews says, He was tempted in every way that we are. He knows what it’s like to have people not understand him. He knows what it’s like to be abandoned or betrayed by his friends. He even knows what it’s like to feel like God has given up on him. He also knows what it’s like to be punished for something he didn’t do.
20. The only thing he doesn’t know from experience is personal sin, because he never did it. But oh, did he pay the price for sin—even though he didn’t deserve to. In fact, he’s taken upon himself most of the price that we have pay for all of our sins.
21. He ransomed you.
22. This one is a repeat: He wants you to make it to heaven.
23. The Letter to the Hebrews tells us to “approach the throne of grace to receive mercy.” Do it everytime you come to church. What do you need to ask for mercy for, tonight?
24. The most powerful place on the planet where you can receive the mercy of God and the relief from sin—a relief that he suffered to give you-- is in the confessional. Make sure you use it. It’s part of the plan God put into place to get you into heaven.
25. Another repeat: But this is what this whole homily has been about: God loves you.

Accept the gift.

Saint Anselm Abbey