RBWords

     The Letter to the Romans continues the theme which I spoke to yesterday: the essential identity of the human person before God.  St. Paul contrasts two identities, that of the "flesh" and that of the "spirit."  The "flesh" is more than appetite.  It is an entire way of being that does not accept the "new law" of Christ as the measure of a person's standing with God.  This is also more than "Torah" (Mosaic Law) because it concerns Gentiles as well.  The law of the "spirit" means the person has become identified with Christ and can no longer live in the manner in which they lived before their baptism.  Christ becomes, as it were, the "filter" through which everything else is seen.  Those who experience faith in this way become truly a "new leaven" which gives life.

     I have witnessed the faith of people like this.  In the past I have mentioned a wonderfully holy woman named Blanche Provost whose simple and profound faith inspired all the college students at the Newman Center of the University of Arizona when I was director there 1977-80.  Her faith entered into everything.  She did not glow in the dark or float in the air.  She simply saw life differently than folks who made religion a kind of "extra" in their lives.  For Blanche, it was the very oxygen of life.  When I preach a parish mission, I try to encourage the congregation to remember and "reclaim" their baptismal commitment and to "put skin" on it.  Faith, expressed in love, is not a religious "veneer" but comes from a mind and heart united with Christ.  As we saw in yesterday's passage from Romans 7, this requires a constant effort and focus, but it is a challenge that bears fruit in drawing others to faith.  AMEN