Word to the Wise
Thursday, October 22, 2015 - Thursday in the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 6:19-23 and Luke 12:49-53,1100]THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2015 ST. JOHN PAUL II [Romans 6:19-23 and Luke 12:49-53] For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ. [Romans] The lines quoted above are among those most quoted from the Letter to the Romans. The way the lectionary divides up the letter for the two year cycle means that we did not see what sorts of things St. Paul considered "sinful." Here he speaks only of "impurity and lawlessness." We have to go back to Chapter 1, verse 28. In fact, most of Chapter 1 is a condemnation of immoral behavior! The crux of St. Paul's argument is that sin is bigger than what was prohibited under the Mosaic Law. All people, Jew or Gentile, need to be saved by faith in Christ. [However, this faith may be implicit in situations where people have never heard of Christ.] There is another important point in those lines. St. Paul speaks of "wages" and "gift." Wages are something that is "due" and "earned," even if it is disaster. Salvation is a gift freely offered to human kind. These are big ideas and this is why the Letter of Romans has been and continues to be one of the most influential documents in the Bible. More to come! AMEN Sent from my iPhone
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
94 ms
4
