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Live
Letters Eighteenth Sunday
in Ordinary Time |
The Catholic Telegraph
August 2, 2002When I was in the seminary - a long time ago - we had a flamboyant French Passionist priest as our professor for one of our courses in philosophy. Whenever we came across some principle or some idea that he found particularly interesting, he would shout out, "This ought to be set to music and sung in Gregorian chant!"
Many scholars feel that way about the passage in Romans (8.31-39) whose conclusion constitutes this Sunday’s live letter. (The first part of the passage is used for the second Sunday of Lent for Year B.) Paul has reached the end of the main section of his extended reflection on salvation. He has laid down the basic teachings that Christians need to know and profess about being saved. Then (in verse 31) he asks, "What then shall we say to this?" What’s the bottom line to it all?
He begins his response to that question by using judicial imagery in verses 31-34. Who can dare to object to God’s favor for us? Will anybody dare to lodge a complaint about us if God is in our favor? Is anybody going to convict us if Christ Jesus speaks for us?
This is where this Sunday’s passage begins. Having established that there is no way that we could be subject to a verdict of guilty since God is on our side, he asks if there are other forces that could pry us loose from God’s love. First (v. 35) he lists tribulations that might afflict us in the context of our natural, ordinary human existence, a whole series of things that people tend to be afraid of. Paul proclaims that none of these can force us away from the love that Christ has for us. Christ’s care for us is stronger that any or all of them! If these are our enemies, we will certainly be the winners!
Then (vv. 38 f.) he offers another list of threats, this time a series of forces that people of his time thought of as cosmic or supernatural powers that influenced life on earth: heavenly beings, astrological forces, the personified energies of life and death, the potencies of time. Paul is absolutely sure that no incorporeal force or power in the whole universe can deprive us of the love that God has for us in and through Christ Jesus our Lord.
The bottom line to Paul’s treatise is that salvation is constituted by God’s love and favor toward us and that nothing in all creation - physical or spiritual - is powerful enough to strip us of that love and favor. In the face of every possible uncertainty, God’s gift of salvation will prevail.
This pivotal passage of Romans is an invitation to confidence, to assurance, to trust. God’s love for us is more powerful than anything we can imagine and it comes to us not as recompense for heroic spiritual efforts or superhuman dedication on our part. It comes to us as God’s free gift which we don’t need to earn, and, in fact, which we cannot earn. There is no need for doubt or question on our part about the strength and vigor of God’s love. Salvation is already finalized in Christ’s love for us and nothing can force us loose from it.
Of course we can reject salvation if we wish. Our own human will can push it away so that we don’t accept it to begin with or can repudiate it once God has given it to us. Salvation does not supersede the possibility of selfishness and sin on our part. Paul is quite conscious of all this, as we learn elsewhere in his writings. But here he’s not talking about us. Here he’s talking about God and about the invincible power of God’s love for us, a love that he had experienced in his own personal history, a love that was the central theme of his evangelizing mission.
There are consequences of all this for individual Christian believers. One is that we are called to be optimists. There is absolutely no power that can separate us from God’s gifts unless we ourselves agree to the separation through sin. True, our human life is a struggle, but it is a struggle that God Himself guarantees we will win. The good guys are going to come out on top and God has seen to it that each one of us is among the good guys.
Another consequence of what Paul says here is that it is appropriate for us to be certain and secure about what lies ahead of us. We don’t have to wonder if God is going to change His mind. We don’t have to worry that somehow we are going to end up in the dark outside at the end. God loves us in and through the risen Christ. That’s the basic truth of salvation and there’s nothing that can change that. Some people are more inclined to diffidence than others. Some find it hard to determine how general principles are to be applied in concrete situations. Some find it hard to decide to decide. But all that is relative and secondary. God understands how limited we are and makes allowance for that. The basic reality is God’s love for us, and there can never be any question about whether or not we should rely on that.
This is a passage that ought to be set to music. It’s a hymn of praise to God’s care for us. It’s a hymn that all Christians are expected to know how to sing.
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Conversation Questions.
Where do I look for stability in my life?
In what aspects of my life am I most vulnerable?
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