2 Kgs.

4: 8-16
Cycle A Rom. 6: 3-11 2 July 2017
Mt. 10: 37-42
INTRODUCTION:

Our 2nd reading for this Sunday is

taken from Rom. 6: 3-11, the most
theologically sophisticated of
Paul's letters, the first listed in the
New Testament, written in the late
50s' for a small group of Jewish
Christians and Gentile Converts.
1

"Are you not aware that we who were baptized in

Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?"
(Rom. 6: 3) Christianity places death right at the
beginning of Christian life.
1

The ritual with which we

enter the Church (Baptism)
is a ritual of death.
1 So is the Eucharist:
"For as often as we
eat this bread and
drink this cup, we
proclaim the death of
the Lord until he
comes."
(I Cor. 11:26)
1 In our churches, we display Christ's
body on the Cross, the symbol of
Christ's death. On entering churches,
we dip our hands into the waters of
baptism and sign ourselves with the
Cross of Christ.
1

The ancient ritual of baptism is by

immersion of the head under water
until the one being baptized feels
suffocation by drowning unlike the
symbol of sprinkling water though
it still means cleansing.
1

From the beginning, the Church

marks people with death.
2

Everything in Christianity conjures to

life, why this preoccupation on death?
We live in a culture that engages in a
thousand ways on denial of death.
2
"We spend most of our
time on diversions."
2

We divert our attention

from the real facts of life
the prime of which is
death. Christianity rubs
our face on death and
refuses to divert us.
2
Why?

Its purpose is to liberate us from the

fear of death by way of inoculation,
injecting a little bit of the disease into
one's system in order to strengthen
our immune system and be able to
fight off the disease.
2
What is the greatest
disease of the human
It's the fear of death that condition?
turns us in ourselves
(curvatus in se), that
makes us divert ourselves
and fill up our fearful
egos with things of this
world (wealth, sex, honor,
fame, privilege, etc.)
2 We cannot avoid death to which we all are
heading for like someone on a raft going
down the dangerous rapids.

Christianity inoculates us
by immersing us into the
fact of death from the
beginning.
2
We are marked by
death. Why?

So that we might be free

from the fear of death.
3

Jesus on the Cross stripped of everything

(love, friendship, dignity, etc..), of all that we typically
use to keep death at bay but rather entering into
(accepting) death, trusting solely in the power of God
and on the third day that trust is rewarded.
3

"By this baptism in his death,

we were buried with Christ so
that as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of
the Father, we too might live
in newness of life."
(Rom. 6: 4)
3
What makes life unbearable?
It is this fear of death
which turns us into
ourselves and makes us
cling to the things of this
world defensively.
3

What makes life worth

living, beautiful and
spiritually vibrant?
When the fear of
death has been
conquered.
3

Now I don't have to live

clinging to the things of this
world, but rather I can walk
in newness of life.
3
This is how
the saints live.
Saints are those who
have conquered their fear
of death so they can live
in forgiveness, in love, in
compassion, in simple
enjoyment of the things of
this world.
3
"Christ as we
know, once risen
from the dead, will
not die again and
death will have no
power over him."
(Rom. 6: 9)
3

Consequently,
"You too must consider
yourself dead to sin but
living in Christ Jesus."
(Rom. 6: 10)
 CONCLUSION:

When you are baptized into his death,

it is as though you are inoculated with
the power of his death so that you can
participate in his victory.
Then you can be alive in Jesus.
+ART
 CONCLUSION:

Sin comes with the fear of death; when

the fear of death is conquered, sin is
conquered. When sin is conquered,
you can live for God in joy, peace,
compassion, in newness of life. +ART