From: Romans 5:5b-11
Reconciliation Through Christ's Sacrifice, the Basis of our Hope
[5b] God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who
has been given to us.
[6] While we were yet helpless, at the right time Christ died for the
ungodly. [7] Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man--though
perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. [8] But God shows
His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
[9] Since, therefore, we are now justified by His blood, much more shall
we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. [10] For, if while we were
enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more,
now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. [11] Not only
so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through
whom we have now received our reconciliation.
Commentary:
1-5. In this very moving passage God helps us see "the divine
interlacing of the three theological virtues which form the backing
upon which the true life of every Christian man or woman has to be
woven" ([St] J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 205). Faith, hope and charity
act in us in turn, causing us to grow in the life of grace. Thus, faith
leads us to know and be sure of things we hope for (cf. Hebrews 11:1); hope
ensures that we shall attain them, and enlivens our love of God; charity,
for its part, gives us energy to practise the other two theological virtues.
The definitive outcome of this growth in love, faith and hope is the
everlasting peace that is of the essence of eternal life.
As long as we are in this present life we do have peace to some
degree--but with tribulation. Therefore, the peace attainable in this
life does not consist in the contentment of someone who wants to have
no problems, but rather in the resoluteness full of hope ("character")
of someone who manages to rise above suffering and stays faithful
through endurance. Suffering is necessary for us, because it is the
normal way to grow in virtue (cf. James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:5-7); that is
why it is providential (cf. Philippians 1:19; Colossians 1:24) and
leads to joy and happiness (1 Thessalonians 1:6).
"A person who hopes for something and strives eagerly to attain it is
ready to endure all kinds of difficulty and distress. Thus, for
example, a sick person if he is eager to be healthy, is happy to take
the bitter medicine which will cure him. Therefore, one sign of the
ardent hope that is ours thanks to Christ is that we glory not only in
the hope of future glory, but also in the afflictions which we suffer
in order to attain it" (St. Thomas Aquinas, "Commentary on Romans, ad.
loc.").
A person who lives by faith, hope and charity realizes that suffering
is not something meaningless but rather is designed by God for our
perfecting. Perfection consists "in the bringing of our wills so
closely into conformity with the will of God that, as soon as we
realize He wills anything, we desire it ourselves with all our might,
and take the bitter with the sweet, knowing that to be His Majesty's
will [...]. If our love is perfect, it has this quality of leading us
to forget our own pleasure in order to please Him whom we love. And
that is indeed what happens" (St. Teresa of Avila, "Book of
Foundations", Chapter 5).
5. The love which St. Paul speaks of here is, at one and the same time,
God's love for us--manifested in His sending the Holy Spirit--and the
love which God places in our soul to enable us to love Him. The Second
Council of Orange, quoting St. Augustine, explains this as follows: "To
love God is entirely a gift of God. He, without being loved, loves us
and enabled us to love Him. We were loved when we were still
displeasing to Him, so that we might be given something whereby we
might please Him. So it is that the Spirit of the Father and the Son,
whom we love with the Father and the son, pours charity into our
hearts" (Second Council of Orange, "De Gratia", Canon 25; cf. St.
Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang.", 102, 5).
6-11. The friendship which reigned in Paradise between God and man was
followed by the enmity created by Adam's sin. By promising a future
redeemer, God once more offered mankind His friendship. The scale of
God's love for us can be seen in the "reconciliation" which the Apostle
speaks about, which took place on the Cross, when Christ did away with
this enmity, making our peace with God and reconciling us to Him (cf.
Ephesians 2:15-16).
The petition in the Our Father, "Forgive us our trespasses as we
forgive those that trespass against us", is an invitation to imitate
the way God treats us, because by loving our enemies "there shines
forth in us some likeness to God our Father, who, by the death of His
Son, ransomed from everlasting perdition and reconciled to Himself the
human race, which before was most unfriendly and hostile to Him" ("St.
Pius V Catechism", IV, 14, 19).
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.
Friday June 18, 2004 Feast of the Sacred Heart
Reading I (Ezekiel 34:11-16) Reading II (Romans 5:5b-11)
Gospel (St. Luke 15:3-7)
In the first reading from the Book of Ezekiel, the Lord tells us that He Himself is going to shepherd His sheep. The reason for that is because His human shepherds have failed Him. They have used the sheep, they have taken their wool, they have taken the milk, and they have not shepherded the sheep because they shepherded themselves. What happens when that occurs is that the sheep scatter all over the place, and the Lord talks about how they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark. Well, that is the day we are living in. We have lots of human shepherds who have taken the money from people. They have driven the people in a way that is completely uncharitable and selfish, but they have not shepherded the people of God. And so God Himself will intervene, but it is not yet. He is going to allow things to get completely cloudy and dark. He is going to allow the sheep to be scattered all over.
Now we would think that if He is the Good Shepherd that He would not allow this, but He allows it for one reason, and that is for us to recognize that we are not strong enough by ourselves. When He talks about what He is going to do, how He is going to bind up the sick and heal the broken and so on, He says, But the strong and the sleek I will destroy. Those who think they do not need the Lord, those who think they can handle this by themselves, they will have no part of Christ because they do not accept His salvation. They do not accept His way and therefore they will be cut off.
Unfortunately, probably many of us fall right into that category. In our heads we would say, “Oh, no, no, no, I need Jesus,” but by the way we live I would suspect that we betray the truth rather frequently. That is, we think we can do it by ourselves. We cannot. And so if we look at the Gospel reading, for instance, and we hear that there will be more rejoicing over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine who do not have need for repentance, we realize that if we think we have no need to repent we are among those strong and sleek. If we want to sit back and point our finger at everyone else and say, “Look at the way that they’re trying to live their faith! Thankfully, I’m not like them!” we are the strong and the sleek. We are going to be destroyed if that is the case. We have to realize that the only reason any of us can live our faith at all is because of the grace of God, and the only reason any of us can remain in union with Christ is a gift of the Lord.
So we can look at our own selves and just ask the simple question, “Am I following Christ, or am I following myself while convincing myself that I’m following Christ?” In other words, are we seeking Him in prayer, are we listening to His voice, are we following where He is leading? Or are we simply using our own minds to be able to say, “This is the right path and I’m going to be on it”? In which case, we become self-righteous and we become strong and sleek. We think we can stand in judgment of everyone else and we do not need to repent because we have got it together and no one else does.
Until we recognize that we are weak, we are sick, we are broken, and we are in absolute need of our Shepherd – that we need to listen to His voice and we need to follow where He is going to lead us, not where we think we ought to be, but where He leads us – we will have no part of Him. But when we get to that point, we will be among those sheep that recognize the need to repent. That will bring great joy to heaven. When we finally get rid of our own self-righteousness, we recognize our own weakness and we repent. That is our call. That is exactly what Our Lord is asking from each one of us. And it is not just simply saying, “Oh, yeah, I’m a sinner. I know that I go to Confession,” but it is to look deep into our hearts and truly repent and be humble before the Lord. That is what He is looking for because when we can get there then we will be the first to admit: “I cannot do this myself” – not just say it in our heads, but mean it from our hearts. When we do that then we will be willing to listen to His voice, then we will be willing to follow where He leads because we realize that where we have led ourselves is completely astray from our Shepherd.
So that is what Our Lord is looking for from us: to be humble, to be repentant, to be weak, to be broken so that we recognize our dependence on Him and that we will listen to Him and be obedient to Him.
Reading I 
