RBWords

     In yesterday's passage from the Letter to the Romans, we encountered St. Paul's way of viewing the human person - wholistically, as it were.  He viewed the human person not in the Greek way which made the body a kind of container for the soul (the way we Westerners tend to think) but in the Hebrew way, which made the human person a single reality with a fundamental orientation in one way or other.  We might use the expression: "mind set" or "attitude" or "lifestyle" - but it's something deeper than that.  St. Thomas Aquinas, O.P. interprets St. Paul's words this way:  "The New Law is first and foremost the gracious gift of the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Christ." [ST, I-II, Q.106].  This gift of the Spirit through faith is what profoundly orients a person to God and to a life of virtue.  This contrasts with a life that is based on a written code that determines all conduct. 

 

     The "new law" that St. Paul discovered completely reoriented his life.  His whole reason for living became a person instead of a law.  Scholars write big books about all of this.  I think it is enough to ask ourselves why we do things?  How does our faith motivate us?  Does it motivate us at all?  Are we aware of the existence of "virtue" in our lives?  Where does Christ come in?  Is our baptism a thing of the past?  I think that's enough for a Saturday morning!  AMEN