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Live
Letters Thirteenth Sunday
in Ordinary Time |
The Catholic Telegraph
June 28, 2002At the end of last Sunday’s reading, Paul proclaimed that the salvation brought by Christ is wider and deeper than the sinfulness brought into the world by Adam. In the verses that follow that reading and precede this Sunday’s, Paul continues in the same vein and, in his zeal to highlight the vast abundance of Jesus redemptive act says (in 5.20), "Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more."
But this could give rise to misunderstanding, a misunderstanding that Paul was quite aware of. "Shall we persist in sin that grace may abound?" (6.1) Such a question might come from a naif member of the assembly who thought that becoming a Christian removed all constraints. It could also come, however, from Paul’s judaizing opponents who might have wanted to show that Paul’s dismissal of the Jewish law could only lead to moral chaos.
In any case, this Sunday’s reading responds to the question. It just doesn’t make sense for anybody who is a Christian believer to think that it’s OK to go on committing sin. Paul explains why.
He tells his readers that they need to be conscious of what happens when we are baptized. We are baptized "into Christ Jesus," that is, we somehow begin to be Him. When we are immersed into the baptismal pool it’s like dying, like going into a tomb. When we come up out of the water it’s like being raised from the dead. These actions present a parallel with Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, but they are not just symbolic. They also bring about what they signify. We become participants in the death of Jesus and in the new, risen life of Jesus that was the sign of the Father’s acceptance of Jesus’ gift of Himself.
The second part of the reading reiterates this teaching. Just as Christ died and now lives and has forever escaped the dominion of death, so also we share Christ’s life and will continue to share it because we have become participants in His death. But the domain of death is also the domain of sin. People who have come out of death are free of any relationship with sin. It no longer applies to them. This is the case with Christ Who is now free from every threat or harm from sin that could arise from His contact with sinful humanity. He has a new kind of human life now. "He lives for God." The same principles apply to us. Because we have shared Christ’s death and resurrection, we no longer have any relationship with sinfulness ("dead to sin") and live the life of the risen Christ that is totally directed toward union with God.
Christian life is not a matter of doing exactly as we please on the grounds that our sins have been forgiven. Nor is it a matter of observing a whole multiplicity of behavioral rules that membership in the Church imposes on us. Christian life is a matter of consistency, of living in accord with what Christ made us to be in baptism.
Avoiding sin has to be part of our Christian existence. Having been made sharers in the life of the risen Christ does not mean that we are no longer able to do wrong, no longer able to return to the dominion of sin and death that Christ freed us from. We are all experienced enough to know that, thanks to the lingering effects of original sin, sin can be very attractive to us. That’s why Christian spirituality teaches us that we cannot afford to toy with circumstances that might lead us into wrongdoing. We must avoid the occasions of sin as well as sin itself.
But Christian life is much more than that. Living out our faith is not just a matter of not being bad or of avoiding sin. It is a matter of being good with the goodness of Christ, of living out in practice the life of Christ that constitutes our participation in the community of faith. Being a follower of Jesus is a positive thing. It means extending His love and kindness and generosity and compassion and forgiveness to every aspect of the world in which we live. And why do we do all that? Not because we are afraid of what will happen to us if we don’t. Not because we are trying to model ourselves on some sort of external pattern that has been offered to us by the story of Jesus’ life. We extend the virtues and values of Christ to the world around us because we are extensions of Christ. The risen Christ has been the source and direction of our lives ever since we were baptized. Just as He wants to live in us, so also He wants us to live in Him and to make our lives into a continuation of His saving and redeeming human existence.
Sometimes people look on Christian life as an unending series of demands. There seem to be so many rules: do this; don’t do that; keep away from such and such; be conscious of the many obligations that Christian faith brings with it. All that has its place, of course, but it’s a pity if that’s the only light in which we see our life as people of faith. Paul’s words to the Romans are much more encouraging. He seems to be saying that, in the final analysis, there is only one rule, and that is to live consistently with the life of the risen Christ that is in us.
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Conversation Questions.
How do I see myself as "dead to sin?"
How do I experience "newness of life?"
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