Replies

From: Galatians 3:7-14

Justification By Faith (Continuation)

[6] Thus Abraham "believed God, and it was reckoned to him as
righteousness." [7] So you see that it is men of faith who are the
sons of Abraham. [8] And the scripture, foreseeing that God would
justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to
Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed." [9] So
then, those who are men of faith are blessed with Abraham who had
faith.

[10] For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is
written, "Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written
in the book of the law, and do them." [11] Now it is evident that no
man is justified before God by the law; for "He who through faith is
righteous shall live" ; [12] but the law does not rest on faith, for "He
who does them shall live by them." [13] Christ redeemed us from the
curse of the law, having become a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed
be every one who hangs on a tree"--[14] that in Christ Jesus the bles-
sing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Commentary:

6-9. The Apostle recalls the figure of Abraham in order to show that
man's justification is not the result of the material works prescribed
by the Mosaic Law, but rather the result of faith in God's word. Accor-
ding to Gen 15:6, when God promised Abraham that he would have a
son even though he was already an old man and his wife Sarah was
barren, Abraham immediately took God at his word. It was this faith
that justified Abraham: God had not yet established circumcision or
given the Law. Therefore, St Paul argues, "it is men of faith who are
the sons of Abraham".

God had given the Patriarch a promise whose implications were
universal: "In you shall all the nations be blessed." That promise is
now being kept through the entry of the Gentiles, through faith, into
the new people of God. Abraham is in effect the father of those who
believe, for in him all those who would believe in Jesus Christ were
already blessed.

In the same way as he justified Abraham, God justifies every man --
through faith (cf. Gen 15:6; Rom 4:2ff; Jas 2:21ff). Thus, people do not
become sons of the Kingdom simply because they are descendants
of Abraham according to the flesh: no, they must become like him by
being men of faith like him. Therefore, man's greatness in God's eyes
is not a matter of blood or descent, as the Jews believed, but of
divine grace, which makes us children of the blessing, children of God
(cf. Jn 1:12-13).

God grants the gift of justification by faith to all who believe in his
word, as Abraham did. The true imitators of Abraham, St John of Avila
says, are "those who believe with loving faith, with firm and constant
faith, who are so well grounded in faith that nothing, no adversity, no
temptation, no ill-treatment can disconsole them or dismay them"
("Lecciones Sobre Gal, ad loc.").

10-12. In what is called the Council of Jerusalem, St Peter had said,
"Why do you make trial of God by putting a yoke upon the neck of the
disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?"
(Acts 15: 10): the Jews could not, despite their efforts, keep the
Mosaic Law--the Law which they thought justified them in God's sight.
Therefore, those who place their hope of salvation in the Law are
subject to the curse which the Law itself places on those who infringe
it: "Cursed be he who does not confirm the words of the Law by doing
them" (Deut 27:26).

The curse of the Law falls on anyone who fails to keep it, given that
every commandment involves a penalty for its transgressor. That is why
the Apostle argues that those who rely only on the Law are subject to
the risk of being cursed, of being punished--"are under a curse". He
then goes on to recall once more the passage in Habakkuk which says
that "the righteous shall live by his faith" (2:4; cf. note on Rom 1:
17). If the righteous or justified man lives by faith, the Apostle
concludes, he does not live by the Law, for the Law does not call for
faith but for fulfillment of its precepts.

13-14. Christ, who was innocent, wished to offer the Father perfect
atonement and thereby blot out our sin. To this end he voluntarily
turned upon himself the curse which the Law laid on its transgressors.
He bore the curse of the Law on our behalf and thereby set us free from
the curse. What was for our Lord punishment was for men salvation. As
St Jerome puts it, "the injury suffered by the Lord is our glory. He
died so that we might live; he descended into hell so that we might
ascend into heaven. He became folly so that we might be reaffirmed in
wisdom. He emptied himself of the fullness and form of God, taking the
form of a slave, so that this divine fullness might dwell in us and we
might be changed from slaves into lords. He was nailed on the Cross so
that the sin committed at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
might be blotted out, once he was hung on the tree of the Cross"
("Comm. in Gal, ad loc.").

With our Lord's death, the world's redemption is achieved, God's
promise is fulfilled and the blessing he gave to Abraham multiplies his
posterity, making them more numerous than the stars of heaven or the
sand of the seashore (cf. Gen 15:5-6; 22:17).

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries".
Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate.
Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University
of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin,
Ireland.
Reprinted with permission from from Four Courts Press and Scepter
Publishers, the U.S. publishers.

From: Luke 11:15-26:

The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan

(Now Jesus was casting out a demon that was dumb; when the demon
had gone out, the man spoke, and the people marvelled.) [15] But some
of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons";
[16] while others, to test Him, sought from Him a sign from Heaven. [17]
But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them, "Every kingdom divided
against itself is laid waste, and house falls upon house. [18] And if Satan
also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say
that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. [19] And if I cast out demons by
Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall
be your judges. [20] But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons,
then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. [21] When a strong man,
fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace; [22] but when
one stronger than he assails him and overcomes him, he takes away his
armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoil. [23] He who is not with
Me is against Me, and He who does not gather with Me scatters."

[24] "When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through
waterless places seeking rest; and finding none he says, `I will return
to my house from which I came.' [25] And when he comes he finds it
swept and put in order. [26] Then he goes and brings seven other
spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the
last state of that man becomes worse than the first."

Commentary:

14-23. Jesus' enemies remain obstinate despite the evidence of the
miracle. Since they cannot deny that He has done something quite
extraordinary, they attribute it to the power of the devil, rather than
admit that Jesus is the Messiah. Our Lord answers them with a
clinching argument: the fact that He expels demons is proof that He
has brought the Kingdom of God. The Second Vatican Council reminds
us of this truth: The Lord Jesus inaugurated His Church by preaching
the Good News, that is, the coming of the Kingdom of God, promised
over the ages in the Scriptures [...]. The miracles of Jesus also demon-
strate that the Kingdom has already come on earth: "If it is by the finger
of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon
you (Luke 11:20); cf. Matthew 12:28). But principally the Kingdom is
revealed in the person of Christ Himself, Son of God and Son of Man,
who came `to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many' (Mark
10:45)" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 5).

The strong man well armed is the devil, who has enslaved man; but
Jesus Christ, one stronger than he, has come and conquered him and
is despoiling him. St. Paul will say that Christ "disarmed the principa-
lities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing
over them" (Colossians 2:15).

After the victory of Christ the "stronger one", the words of verse 23
are addressed to mankind at large; even if people do not want to
recognize it, Jesus Christ has conquered and from now on no one can
adopt an attitude of neutrality towards Him: he who is not with Him is
against Him.

18. Christ's argument is very clear. One of the worst evils that can
overtake the Church is disunity among Christians, disunity among
believers. We must make Jesus' prayer our own: "That they may be
one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they may also
be one in us, so that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me"
(John
17:21).

24-26. Our Lord shows us that the devil is relentless in his struggle
against man; despite man rejecting him with the help of grace, he still
lays his traps, still tries to overpower him. Knowing all this, St. Peter
advises us to be sober and vigilant, because "your adversary the devil
prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist
him, firm in your faith" (1 Peter 5:8-9).

Jesus also forewarns us about the danger of being once more defeated
by Satan--which would leave us worse off than were before. The Latin
proverb puts it very well: "corruptio optimi, pessima" (the corruption
of the best is the worst.) And St. Peter, in his inspired text, inveighs
against corrupt Christians, whom he compares in a graphic and frighte-
ning way to "the dog turning back to his own vomit and the sow being
washed and then wallowing in the mire" (cf. 2 Peter 2:22).