Word to the Wise
Monday, October 30, 2023 - Monday in the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 4:20-25 and Luke 12:13-21]For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cary, "Abba, Father!" The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. [Romans]
Adoption is an area of the law where there are strict rules that must be followed. St. Paul, as a Roman citizen, would have been familiar with it because one of the unique features of Roman adoption law was "forced heirship." My home state of Louisiana is unique in the USA because it follows the Roman tradition of law, which most of the world does except for those that were once colonized by the British. Forced heirship means that a parent cannot not disinherit a child except for a very few and strictly interpreted reasons. An adopted child, therefore, obtained the same rights as a "natural" child, and became a "forced heir." [This differed from the British law which allowed inheritance to the oldest child, a system called "primogeniture."]
St. Paul uses the analogy of Roman inheritance law to explain what occurs by faith in baptism. We who are baptized are "adopted" into the same relationship with God that Jesus has. We become "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him." By baptism we receive a new identity. Earlier in Romans 6:3-4, he writes: "Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life." The analogy of adoption is meant to convey what this new identity is like.
One of the principal aims of the Second Vatican Council was to recover the sense of "rebirth" that is the effect of baptism and its commitment to discipleship in Christ. The practice of infant baptism can have the effect of making this event seem like something in the past with a certificate to prove it. But our baptism confers an identity, not just some kind of membership. We are part of the "Body of Christ" and joint heirs with Him and we are called to live as he did on earth so as to live with him eternally. AMEN
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