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Letters Twenty-Second
Sunday in Ordinary Time |
The Catholic Telegraph
August 30, 2002This Sunday’s reading brings us to the last main section of Romans (12.1 - 15.13). As is so often the case in the Pauline letters, this final section of Romans is devoted to ethical exhortation, to directives for practical living. Since Paul was not personally acquainted with the members of the Church at Rome, the exhortation section in Romans is rather generic. Paul gives general directives for all moral life rather than responding to specific questions or problems (as he does, for example, in First Thessalonians).
These chapters deal with Christians’ relationship with one another (12.3-13), with relationships with those outside the community of faith (12.14-13.14), and finally with the principles that should govern Christians’ response to Jewish dietary laws (14.1-15.13), an issue that seems to have called for resolution in many of the early local churches.
The two verses that constitute this Sunday’s reading serve as a general introduction to the whole section.
As the text has been edited for the Lectionary, a very important word has been left out at the beginning: "Therefore." This word not only serves as the stylistic connective with what has immediately preceded, but also has a theological function. What Paul has said about salvation and faith and God’s plans for Jews and Gentiles has some practical consequences. These consequences are what Paul now presents to his readers.
Because of God’s gift of salvation, because of the nature of faith, because of the replacement of the Jewish ritual law by new life in Christ (all of which are manifestations of God’s mercy), God looks for a new kind of sacrifice and a new kind of worship from the faithful. Paul calls on the Romans to make a sacrifice of themselves, to offer God no longer the animal sacrifices of the Old Law, but the gift of their very own persons. Because of the gifts of salvation that the faithful have received, such an offering of themselves is "spiritual worship," "holy and pleasing to God."
Next come some comments on their relationship with the world around them, and with themselves. They have to be different from the world, and they have to work on making themselves ever more in accord with the life of Christ that has constituted them in a new kind of life. Through ongoing spiritual growth they will become ever more in tune with God’s plans for them, i.e. with that which is "good and pleasing and perfect."
There are at least two important principles for Christian living in these verses.
First of all, Christian life does not consist in the mere performance of certain actions, in the external observance of a set of rules and regulations. Clearly there are standards of behavior for Christian believers, some things that are right and some things that are wrong, and we have to follow these moral directives whether we like them or not, whether we understand them or not. But all that is only the beginning. The real heart of Christian morality, the real pragmatic response to the salvation we have received consists in a conscious and deliberate response to what God has made us to be. The basic, underlying principle of Christian behavior is to live out the life of Christ in the circumstances in which we find ourselves. That makes us pleasing to God because that constitutes consistency with the gifts God has given us.
The second important principle that is implicit in this Sunday’s live letter is that living a Christian life is not a once and for all thing. It is not a set of behaviors that we acquire and then use more or less automatically, as we might learn and use a language. It’s not just a habit that determines the specifics of our existence. Christian life includes an ongoing relationship with the world around us and an ongoing relationship with God, and relationships involve development and growth.
People relate to the world around them in one way in childhood, in another way in adolescence, and in still another way in maturity. We relate to the world differently at different times because we ourselves are different. We grow in wisdom and experience. We acquire resources of various kinds. As our understanding of our world grows, our capacity to influence it grows and the way we relate to it changes - or should change.
Similarly, we grow in faith. As the years pass, if we are attentive enough, we learn more and more about the Lord, we experience the life of Christ in us in different ways, we become more at home with the presence of God in our lives, we begin to see the world around us more and more from the perspective of Christ.
Our spirituality matures. We become different.
We are all called to transformation. We are all invited to an ongoing renewal of our spirit. It’s a transformation and a renewal that requires effort and attention, but it’s an essential part of the Christian vocation we have received.
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Conversation Questions.
To what extent is the quest for transformation part of my life?
What criteria do I use to discern the will of God?
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