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Live
Letters Fifteenth Sunday
in Ordinary Time |
The Catholic Telegraph
July 12, 2002Paul has told the Romans that, as a result of the salvation brought to us through Jesus, we are free from the obligation to observe the Jewish law and free from any obligations to "the flesh" (cf. last Sunday’s reading). In the verses that come between last Sunday’s reading and this Sunday’s, he tells them that the Spirit of God brings them into a new relationship with God, a relationship that allows us to call God "Father" (as Jesus did), provided only that we are willing to share Jesus’ sufferings.
This Sunday’s live letter begins with an tie-in to suffering, but directs our attention to still another new relationship that arises out of salvation.
The present may be a time of suffering, the reading says, but the suffering we bear here and now is nothing in comparison with the glory that awaits us, a glory that the whole of creation will share with us.
Creation lost its original orientation through the sin of Adam. Because of its association with humanity, when humanity sinned, creation no longer meant the same thing it had meant before. It was now "subject to futility"’ that is, in a state of aimlessness, without meaning and direction. Yet there was a dimension of hope still left (presumably founded on God’s promise of the eventual defeat of the forces of evil that is suggested in Genesis 3.15). Creation looked forward to the fulfillment of this hope that would be found in the context of the glorious liberation and re-direction that would come to humanity.
We already enjoy the beginnings of that final newness of creation and of the ultimate freedom of humanity. It comes to us through the Spirit of Christ. But there is still more to come, still a final fulfillment that is not yet here, that which Paul calls "the redemption of our bodies" at the end of time, the full status of our adoption by God. We look forward to that final state with profound anticipation. We groan for it and creation groans with us, aching to give birth to the final fruits of its original destiny.
There are two important teachings implicit in this Sunday’s reading. The first is that the final destiny of material creation is connected with the final destiny of humankind. Creation was and is linked to the status of humanity.
This suggests that the world in which we live is not just a source of things for us to use. It is not just a kind of handy convenience store in which we can find what we need and then leave behind. On the contrary, the created universe in which we find ourselves is destined to share the salvation, the redemption, the sanctification that God offers to us. It is part of what we are all about. It is directed toward a final fulfillment even as we are. When we speak of the "salvation of the world" we don’t mean just the human beings in the world. We mean the world itself in consort with us.
Ecology has become an important element in contemporary behavior, both individual and corporate. We recycle soft drink cans and take care to dispose of old batteries properly. There are international treaties about the ozone layer and about whale hunting. And all that it good. It means that we have learned that we have to use our world carefully or run the risk of using up its resources. But there is a further dimension to the Christian view of creation. We believe that we must treat creation carefully not just in order to preserve its usefulness for ourselves, but because creation isn’t ours. It belongs to God. We have it on loan. We are allowed to enjoy its benefits, but we have to keep reminding ourselves that God has further plans for it.
The second teaching that is implicit in this Sunday’s live letter is that, although we have been saved, although the Spirit of Jesus lives in us, we have not yet reached the fullness of what God has in store for us. God isn’t finished with us yet just as God isn’t finished with the world yet. The final, unchangeable bond between ourselves and God still lies ahead of us, and we have to wait for it.
This call to waiting involves two things. One is that we still have work to do. God expects us to cooperate with His love for us, to respond to the new life that has been given to us. We are supposed to grow and develop, not just by passive acceptance of the gifts God gives us, but by doing our part to receive and share them. The other element of our having to wait is the assurance that what happens here and now in this world is not final. The challenges and sorrows we are asked to bear, as well as the achievements we bring to conclusion, are not the last word. They are "nothing compared to with the glory that will be revealed for us."
God has given us a complex and wonderful world to enjoy and a wonderful life to live. But the best is still to come.
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Conversation Questions.
In practice, how should Christians relate to the world around them?
How is waiting part of my Christian existence?
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