One of the words which is greatly overused today is the term "liberation". This is a common catchall word which the media uses all the time to express the attempt to free one from the bondage of this life. You hear about liberation from poverty, liberation from political domination, black liberation, brown liberation, and female liberation. It is a great term, but its has been so completely secularized that it has lost its biblical meaning. You remember that Jesus said to the Jews, "I am the truth and the truth shall make you free." As always, they could not understand the spiritual dimension of His message, and so they responded in a secular way. They said to Him, "We are the descendants of Abraham and we have never been in bondage to anybody. How, therefore, can you claim to make us free?" Jesus replied to them, "Anyone who commits sin is a slave to sin."

This is the spiritual meaning of bondage and liberation. The power of evil has such a hold on us that we are slaves to it. Therefore, no matter what our political cause celebre' may be we are still in bondage. Even if we have success in our attempts to liberate vast areas of life, we are still slaves to sin. We are not really free. Jesus told us that anyone that the Son of Man shall liberate, he is free indeed-truly, actually, fully free. This is the great message that is proclaimed today as we prepare to commemorate the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has come to be the means whereby all of mankind may be set free from the bondage of sin. Then we shall truly be able to set about doing the good works that He recommends to us and that we desire ourselves.

This liberation that He presents to us is one of being completely absolved and forgiven for our sins. We do not have to belabor the point that all of us in one form or another are slaves to sin. "All have sinned," says the Bible, "and fallen short of the glory of God." It is only a matter of degree, actually, between those unfortunate people who are sitting in Soledad prison today and the rest of us. Their having fallen short of the glory of God is more obvious, more open, and they are the ones who are obviously paying for it. However, in kind, in the fact of sin, we share with them the tragic fallen nature of humanity.

This truth might be hard for some of us to accept. We say, "It might be true of everyone else in this room today, but not of myself." We do not think that this condition of alienation really applies to us. Sometimes is takes a great shock to have our eyes open to our separation from truth and goodness and holiness. This may happen when we are stricken with a serious illness and we have a few days or even weeks to contemplate ourselves as we lie in a hospital bed. Our first inclination is to ask, "What did I do to deserve this?" Then, gradually,we begin to think over our past life and we can recollect that there were occasions when we ignored God's word. There were occasions when we hurt other people. There were occasions when we expressed the sin that was within us. It is a grievous thing to acknowledge this fact, but it is true. We all, whether deep in our unconscious minds or right out in front, know that before God we stand condemned.

This truth, like a dark cloud, has hung over mankind ever since the beginning. The alienation from God that exists in our hearts comes out, for instance, in the compulsion to do wrong and to hurt other people. We try to justify our guilty conscience. We get involved in great moralistic causes and we end up harming more people than helping. We are driven back and forth by evil desire on the one hand, and guilt and remorse on the next. Finally, we descend to that condition of despair from which no one can extricate us. We feel like the psalmist who said, "My sins have taken such hold upon me, that I am not able to look up; yea they are more in number than the hairs of my head."

The great truth that the Gospel announces is that God has forgiven us. This is the message that comes to us from the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. God loves us even though we are sinners. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." God just wipes away, in one mighty fiat, the sentence of condemnation and forgives everyone. "Though your sins were scarlet," said the prophet Isaiah, "they shall be as white as snow." Can you believe that? Can you accept that? God loves us so much that He puts aside the vast load of self-incrimination that exists in us and forgives. "Though your sins be red like crimson, they shall be as wool," said the prophet. God's love in Christ is revealed as so complete that there no longer is condemnation for sin.

This is the first truth of the Gospel proclaimed by every preacher. It is proclaimed by the Bible as well, and expressed by the Eucharist at the altar. It is presented in this beautiful hymn of the passion: "He died that we may be forgiven. He died to make us good. That we might go at last to Heaven, saved by His precious blood." This verse expresses the meaning of our salvation. Christ Himself, came to take upon Him all the burden of sin.

In the ancient world mankind, by intuition, tried in many ways to make atonement for his sins. We find this in all ancient religions. We especially find in Judaism a more refined and more specifically stated way to make atonement for the sins of the people. Each year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would offer the temple sacrifice to purge away the sins of the people. He would offer a sacrificial bull at the high altar in the Temple. He would take a goat and confess the sins of the community over it and drive it off into the wilderness to symbolize sin leaving. However, the author of the New Testament Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that these ceremonies and acts of sacrifice could not really purge the conscience. Something more had to happen.

What really did happen is that God came and offered Himself as the sacrifice for the sins of mankind. God, Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice that paid the price of sin so that we can go free. This is why we call this Passion Sunday, because God suffered. God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son to die for us in order for us to inherit eternal Life.

Now, this is a great mystery. We can never comprehend it. We can lose it in all the avenues of false logic. We do know that there is no one good enough, as the hymn says, to pay the price of sin. No one, no human being, could do this for us. It was only God who could do this, and this is the way He chose. From the foundation of the world Jesus Christ was the lamb sacrificed for the sins of mankind. In a great and triumphant act Jesus offered Himself, both God and man, to bring together the alienated and the Holy, the divine and the human.

God is not One who ignores the fact of sin. He takes it so seriously, and He loves us so much, that He paid the price. Then, if we respond in love, if we say to God,"I recognize my hopeless condition and I receive your gift of salvation and I will try to follow your example and your teachings," we are liberated. We are free from the bondage of sin. No longer do its chains hold us down. We can respond with love to God first and then with love to everyone else in God's name. "Oh dearly, dearly, has He loved and we must love Him too, and trust in His redeeming blood and try His works to do." This is the liberation that Christ offers us, paid for by His own sacrifice, and commemorated in word and in sacrament. The Holy Communion is the verbal and visual demonstration that this sacrifice has occurred and has been offered and extended to you. When you receive in faith and trust the body and blood of Christ at the altar, you are receiving the fruits of this sacrifice. You are celebrating your liberation and your freedom.

The other evening in our Bible Class we were discussing this very theme as we were reading the Book of Romans. Paul, over and over again, in every way he could possibly think of communicates this wonderful gospel- the forgiveness that God offers to us - the price that God paid so that we can be forgiven - the response of love and gratitude and moral dedication that is expected of us.

As a possible example think of the following scene. We are all driving down the freeway not observing very carefully the speed laws. Speed is one of the compulsions that we all have in the 21st Century. Why is it that we just want to go faster and faster regardless of the consequences, regardless of the law, and regardless of the cost? We are driven even as we drive.

When we see a black and white car we take our foot off the accelerator and look at the speedometer. We immediately know we are guilty. We are all doing 80 miles per hour and we are all arrested. Most of us have had previous violations and there are all kinds of difficulties that will ensue such as high fines, insurance costs, and even worse. We know we are guilty, but we know we are not going to change. We have this compulsion, you see. We know that when we get back on the highway, we will do it all over again.

We stand before the judge in fear and trembling. Then all of a sudden a miracle occurs. The judge takes off his robe and smiles at us. He comes down amongst us and says to everyone, "You all can go free. I am going to pay your fine. I am going to take out of my pocket the cost of this infraction and I am expunging it from your records."

This is the meaning of the Cross of Christ. God came down and paid the price. There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. Only God could do this. He only could unlock the gate of Heaven to let us in. Now some of us would say, "Hurray, my fine has been paid. The record has been expunged. I will go free and I will continue to speed any time I want to." That is how many people look upon the redemption that Christ has wrought for us.

But some will say, "This act of love and sacrifice on my behalf forces me to do something. It forces me to look into my life and analyze why I am out there recklessly driving and endangering other people's lives and my own." There will be some that respond to this overwhelming act of love in such a way that they voluntarily give up their compulsion to break the law. This is the power of sanctification that Christ has brought to the world ever since. A certain number of grateful souls respond to the news of this powerful and glorious act of love and forgiveness and repent and are liberated.

You do not have to respond if you do not want to. But if you do respond, you are entering into the mystery of God's redemption. A whole new world has opened up of salvation, of love and of eternity.

You may remember the story told by Fenelon, who was the Archbishop of Cambrai, France in the 17th century. He was a beacon of spiritual strength and truth in a very corrupt period in society. He told the story of a college boy, who was out one night with some of his atheistic friends in Paris. They decided they would commit the worst sacrilege they could think of at the moment. One of them would be chosen to go into a nearby parish church and confess all kinds of blasphemous sins just for a joke. The lot fell to this one boy. He went into the Church and knelt down in the confessional and reeled off as many horrible things as he could think of to the pious priest waiting there. When the confession was over, the wise old priest, knowing he was being taunted said, "My son, I would like you to do one thing. I would like you to stop and kneel down before the crucifix on the way out of this church and say, 'My Lord Jesus Christ, you died for me and I don't give a damn.'" That boy was the future Archbishop and this experience changed his life.

May you also, turn your eyes upon the crucified Christ and find liberation from the slavery of sin and death and a new life of service and dedication to Him