Introduction
This week I have been reading chapters 5-7 of St Paul’s letter to the Romans, and am just beginning chapter 8. I have continued the same method of slowly reading through this letter in the Jerusalem Bible. Just before the start of chapter 5, there is a big heading, ‘SALVATION’. This indicates the beginning of what is the spiritual and theological core of the letter where Paul explains that we are redeemed by Christ and come to new life in him. I think this middle part of the letter is somewhat easier to understand and follow than the previous and later sections.
Lectio
Romans has been called the fifth gospel. Although it is not of the same genre as the four Gospels themselves, it does contain Good News about our salvation in Jesus Christ. In chapter 5, at the beginning of the section on salvation, we are told
sin entered the world through one man, and through sin death, and then death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned (5:12).
For very many years I felt this as a great grievance – if one man had not sinned, then sin would not have entered the world, so there would have been no sin, so I would not have been guilty of sins. This section of Romans is read at Vigils (or the Office of Readings) on Ash Wednesday and the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, which should attune us to the notion that it is about the cleansing of sin. Of course, in my indignation, I was missing the point, the good news, that is proclaimed a few sentences later, if it is certain that through one man’s fall so many died, it is even more certain that divine grace, coming through one man, Jesus Christ, came to so many as an abundant free gift (5:15).
This year I decided to use vv. 15-21 to draw up a kind of balance sheet to show how God’s loving mercy and generosity greatly outweigh the effects of one man’s sin.
| The Fall | The Gift |
| Begins with Adam | Begins with the One to come |
| Through one man’s fall so many died | The divine grace came through one man, Jesus Christ, as an abundant free gift |
| Judgement leads to condemnation | Grace leads to acquittal |
| Death reigned over everyone | Jesus Christ will cause everyone to reign in life |
| There is a free gift we do not deserve – being made righteous | |
| Condemnation comes on everyone | Christ brings everyone life and makes us justified |
| Disobedience leads to sinfulness | Obedience leads to righteousness |
| A great number of sins are committed | Grace is even greater |
| Sin reigns wherever there is death | Grace will reign to bring eternal life |
Thanks to the righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ our Lord.
For me, one of the most important passages in this section of Romans is
You have been taught that when we were baptised in Christ Jesus we were baptised in his death; in other words, when we were baptised we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life (6:3-4).
This teaching is used to great effect when the body of a deceased Catholic is about to be brought into Church, often the day before the funeral. For a nun the Abbess says:
‘In the waters of baptism our sister N. died with Christ and rose with him to new life.’
I find this a sombre but poignant moment. I think of the darkness and coldness of the tomb, of the nun’s baptism, usually in her infancy, of the many years of her life between that moment and this, how she has been united with Christ all that time through her baptism, and then, the joyful thought breaks in of how she is now continuing on her journey into eternal life. Baptism, which unites us with Christ, is the first stage on a journey of ever-deeper union with him.
A theme which has come to me this week is new life in Christ. That life begins here, on earth, now; we don’t have to wait for our own bodily rising from the dead. This is confirmed in the following extracts:
We believe that having died with Christ we shall return to life with him: Christ, as we know, having been raised from the dead will never die again. Death has no power over him anymore. When he died, he died, once for all, to sin, so his life now is life with God; and in that way, you too must consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus (6: 8-11).
Now, however, you have been set free from sin, you have been made slaves of God, and you get a reward leading to your sanctification and ending in eternal life (6:22).
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you (8:11).
Prayer
Lord, we ask you to open our eyes more fully to your great goodness to us, in the forgiveness of our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, and ask that we may desire to grow in ever closer union with you, and with one another.