Jesus Giving Peter the Keys

Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time
Romans 11:33-36
August 23, 2020

Several weeks ago when we looked at the ending of Romans 8 we saw that Paul can write individual passages that are so beautiful that we can forget that they are not meant to stand alone but to bring a section of the letter to a conclusion. We see the same today. This week’s passage is also meant to do double duty: conclude Paul’s teaching on the relationship between Jewish and Gentile Christians, Rom 9-11, but also the entire letter that went before. Paul as an artist was up to the task.

Continue reading “21st Sunday of Ordinary Time – Responding in Unity and Community” →

The Assumption of the Virgin, Titian, 1516–18, Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Romans 11:13–15, 29–32
August 16, 2020

Last week, we began to examine St Paul’s teaching about the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. We saw that for Paul the major issue was the faithfulness of God. He promised the Jews that he would never abandon them, and they would always remain chosen. Yet with the death and resurrection of Jesus, it seems that he has raised up a new people and displaced the Jews. For Paul this would make God a liar and is thus inconceivable.

As we saw Paul reminded the people, Jew and Greek, that God could transform them as a community just as he transformed him as an individual Jew. Although, certainly for us and most likely for his original audience this was a difficult concept, Paul found it important enough to review it and indeed expand on it. Our reading today reflects this, and I would like to remind you that not only does it contain some difficult concepts the passage skips around Romans 11. We will need to fill in a lot of material.

Continue reading “20th Sunday of Ordinary Time – The Mystery of God’s Salvation” →

Christ Walks on Water, Eero Järnefelt, 1891, Pori Art Museum (Wikipedia)

Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Romans 9:1-5
August 9, 2020

Last week we concluded our reading of Romans 8 with its ecstatic hymn to the power of God’s love to reach us: “(nothing) will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord .” (Rom. 8:39b). Paul had already assured us that by our Baptisms we were chosen by God. (Rom 8:29-30) and so the Romans, and we ourselves, should ask “What about the Jews?” Were they not chosen? Have they been abandoned by God?

This would have been particularly important to Paul’s original audience, the church at Rome. As we have seen repeatedly throughout this letter, that through their commercial interests many members of this community were closely connected to Jerusalem. Their Christianity would also have had a distinct Jewish flavor. Not all however had these same ties and some were not born Jews. Although all professed belief in Jesus there would have been tensions. These tensions were so great that the emperor Claudius around 45 AD expelled the Jews who followed “Chrestos” from the city of Rome. By the time Paul is writing to the Romans, “gentile Christians” were moving to Rome. Paul would need to explain himself and he did not have the best reputation on this issue. Continue reading “19th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Accepting the Need to Be Transformed” →

Milagro de los panes y los peces, Juan de Espinal, c. 1750, Despacho del Alcalde de la Casa consistorial de Sevilla (Wikipedia)

18th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Rom. 8:35, 37-39
August 2, 2020

Today’s reading is one of the most beautiful standalone passages in St. Paul. Whenever possible, I use it for funerals because it expresses the bedrock of Christian hope. Yet having examined the rest of Romans, we can see why it is such a fitting conclusion to it. It is also a pertinent exhortation to us at St. Charles.

The selection that will be used at Mass needs to be read with the passage immediately before it. Together, they form a powerful and haunting victory hymn: Continue reading “18th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Living in the Spirit, Sharing in His Victory” →

Photo by Cassiano Psomas on Unsplash

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Romans 8:28–30
July 26, 2020

Our readings from Romans for the last two weeks emphasized “groaning”. All of Creation, the Christian, and indeed the Holy Spirit, experienced frustration. In Paul’s terms, human beings lived “in the flesh;” our activities directed to “saving” ourselves. This is impossible and so we were never fulfilled. Jesus offers us the opportunity to “live in the Spirit,” living so that all our actions flow from our relationship with Him.

Thus Paul can say in today’s reading:

We know that all things work for good
for those who love God,
who are called according to his purpose
(Rom. 8:28)

Paul assures us that we were not created for frustration but fulfillment. Yet he goes further and shows us what that fulfillment is. Before looking at this, let us remember two things we mentioned at the very beginning of our study of Romans. Continue reading “17th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Living in the Glory of God” →

Photo by Mike Enerio on Unsplash

16th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Romans 8:26–27
July 19, 2020

Last week’s reading began with

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth
comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.

(Rom. 8:18)

This is a common theme in the New Testament. We saw when reading the 1^st Letter of Peter that his community suffered from the scorn of family and former friends. We will see in Matthew’s Gospel the suffering of internal divisions. Each of these authors use these experiences to relate the present situation of that particular community to Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection. Paul does the same, but he broadens the perspective to the whole of creation and indeed God himself.

Jewish law was evidence-based. Testimony was always required. To prove that today’s sufferings are insignificant to the glory for which we are intended Paul gives us three witnesses:

Continue reading “16th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Everlasting Hope for Our Restless Hearts” →

Man Holding Basket, Duong Tri, Unsplash

15th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Romans 8:18–23
July 12, 2020

No other letter of St Paul is read as much as Romans in the liturgy and no part of it as intently as Romans 8. As we saw last week, it answers the question:

Wretched man that I am!
Who will rescue me from this body of death?
(Rom. 7:24–25)

Paul boldly told us that it was Jesus and him alone. He will rescue us not by a decree, but by joining his life to ours. We will live “in” his Spirit. Paul, ever the good Jew, believed that the human being had two inclinations: abandonment to God and reliance on material things. They did not play well together. He begins today with:

Consider that the sufferings of this present time
are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.
(Rom. 8:18)

This is not only nor even principally a conflict with Rome or indeed with fellow Jews but a battle within us. Which inclination will guide us, will we choose God or the world?

It was a great insight of the Jews that this was not merely psychological or even sociological and political but cosmic in nature. Continue reading “15th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Harmony in the Kingdom of Heaven” →