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Letters Twentieth Sunday
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The Catholic Telegraph
August 16, 2002Paul has been trying to account for the seeming rejection of salvation on the part of most Israelites. Last Sunday we saw how, in chapters nine and ten, he explains their persistence in rejection: many were not really Israelites at all, in the deepest and most spiritual sense, and many misused the law in a way that made it impossible for them to accept salvation.
In chapter eleven Paul is more positive. Just as not all the Jews rejected Christ, so also widespread Jewish rejection of Christ would prove to be only temporary. A better situation lay in store for them in the future.
Our Sunday reading is an abridgement of a much longer and more complex argumentation that runs throughout chapter eleven. As the lectionary presents the text to us, it is an essay in contrasts.
Paul begins with the contrast between Gentiles and Jews. He has been sent to bring salvation to the Gentiles and is grateful for his vocation. But that ministry is also partially directed toward the Jews ("my race"). The abundance of gifts given to the Gentiles may serve to make some of the Jews "jealous" (i.e., may elicit a spirit of competition), and so lead them to salvation.
If reconciliation has been made available to "the world" (i.e., the Gentiles) because of the Jews rejection of it, what blessings will flow from their ultimate acceptance of it? Nothing less than a restoration of true life for them!
Now comes the sentence on which the whole of Paul’s argumentation rests: God has not revoked His gifts to the Jews. He still calls them to be His people.
More contrasts follow. The Jews’ rejection of Christ made room for salvation to be given to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles’ former state of disobedience to God elicited God’s mercy for them. Similarly, in view of the mercy shown the Gentiles, the Jews’ present disobedience may elicit God’s mercy for them, too. Mercy is God’s response to disobedience, and since God allowed both Gentiles and Jews to be disobedient, He will have mercy on them all.
This is a rather complex passage and, if it is to be understandable, we have to be very clear about the antitheses that Paul is drawing: you/they; rejection/acceptance; disobedience/mercy. And all this has to be viewed in the light of God’s mercy and God’s irrevocable gifts and calling addressed to Gentiles and Jews alike.
We saw Paul in last Sunday’s second reading trying to explain why individual Jewish people might have missed out on salvation. In our present reading he is painting with a wider brush, not about the personal failings of individuals, but about God’s plans for whole groups, Jews and Gentiles alike. In the final analysis, God plans to be merciful to us all.
It is important for us to realize that none of us stands alone before God. Our relationship with the Lord obviously involves our behavior as individuals and we will be judged on the personal decisions that we have made. But that’s only part of the reality. There is also the social or communitarian dimension of our vocation to salvation and grace. The life of each one of us is influenced by the lives of those around us. Our attitude toward other human beings, our expectations of life, the quality of our commitment to God: all these are affected by the people with whom we come into contact from birth to death. We learn from them, we are changed by them, we are moved by them. Likewise, the people around us are influenced by us, some in ways that we can perceive and acknowledge, some in ways that we are totally unaware of -for better or for worse. We all live in an interactive context of others.
But there is also the context of God. The presence and providence of God are as much a part of our daily existence as are the presence and action of others on us and of us on them. We are free to try to maintain an awareness of God’s involvement or to try to forget about it. It makes more sense to try to be conscious of God’s involvement with us because it’s more realistic! But God is there, whether we choose to notice or not.
God doesn’t protect us from every hurt any more than a human parent preserves children from every knee-scrape. God doesn’t arrange our life so that it’s an unending series of pleasant experiences, any more than human parents provide limitless ice-cream cones. Sometimes we find God plans for us to be deficient because we and God work on different levels. We want immediate satisfaction and full comprehension of what’s going on. But God’s plans are plans of kindness and mercy, whether or not we understand and appreciate them.
In this part of his letter Paul reminds the Romans that God looks out for His people, individually and collectively. God offers kindness and mercy to us all, Jews and Gentiles alike. God has plans for us all. And the bottom line to God’s plans is salvation and grace and eternal life for all who will accept them.
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Conversation Questions.
How has God’s providence for others influenced my salvation?
How has the history of my salvation influenced others?
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