Lord of All

The one who said "I thirst" and received on the hyssop the wine of the new covenant, representing the blood shed and the blood shared by the eucharistic community to which he surrenders his spirit, this one is either Lord of all or he is not Lord at all. - Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon


This section of the book resonates for me partly because I've heard Fr. Neuhaus speak on this topic.  Without knowing where he's headed with this in the book (and I may include this quotation again with more that precedes it, a post which I actually started writing this morning before this one), I know that there are two contexts for this statement. 

• Either Christ is Lord of all creation, or he isn't Lord of any of it.

True enough, and that I'll leave that aspect to the other post.  But more significantly for me, in this moment:

• Either Christ is Lord of my whole life, or he is not Lord of my life at all!

My relationships.  My finances.  My work.  My recreational activities.  My innermost thoughts.  And right now, I'm thinking of habitual sin that I've tried to turn over to him many time before.  Our pastor on Sunday talked about sins against which we struggle, some of which we will probably take to our graves.  I know that my Lord has paid the price for these sins, and in the process, has purchased my freedom from them.  The thing is, he has won me more than a reprieve from the condemnation they deserve; he has set me free from the sin itself.  


Oh, how this relates to our cultural misunderstanding of liberty!  It isn't that we're free to do whatever we wish, that Christ has set me free so I need not worry about my choices.  As Michael Card says, freedom is "the power to do what is right."  Lately, many of us act as if it is also the power to compel others to do what we think is right.  But for me, I must recognize that Christ's victory over sin means that the Holy Spirit indwelling me will help me choose the way that best glorifies God rather than the way of sin.


Either the one on the cross is Lord of all my life, or he is not Lord of my life at all.