Word to the Wise
Tuesday, October 21, 2025 - Tuesday in the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 5:12, 15b, 17-19, 20b-21 and Luke 12:35-38]In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so, through one righteous act acquittal and life came to all. For just as through the disobedience of one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous. Where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. [Romans]
By the time St Paul wrote his Letter to the Romans, he had been a Christian for some years and had plenty of time to reflect on the significance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Prior to his conversion, he had been a zealous Pharisee, dedicated to the observance of the Mosaic Law. His Jewish faith was based entirely on that. His conversion meant that he went from belief that God's will was solely expressed in the Mosaic Law to a belief that God's will was manifested anew in a person - Jesus Christ. The tension between his past and his life after conversion shows up in many ways. In Romans, it results in an extended reflection on the role of the Jewish faith in God's overall plan of salvation - chs. 9-11. The Mosaic Law, in his new thinking, was a kind of preparation or "pedagogue" for the coming of Christ.
In today's passage, Paul reflects on his idea of Christ as a "new Adam" who re-establishes the good relationship between God and humanity which was lost through Adam's (and Eve's) sin. St. Augustine referred to it as the "original sin!"
All of this impacts us, today, on the level of the significance of baptism and its effect of restoration which St. Paul reflects on in chapter 6. We are baptized into the life, death and resurrection of Christ. It also is a reminder to us to remember that our faith is assisted by written expressions such as creeds, Catechism and Canon Law and other precepts of observance, but those do not have the same status for us as the Mosaic Law had for St. Paul and still has for observant Jews. Faith in Christ is expressed both in worship and in love of neighbor. We can't have one without the other. AMEN