From: Titus 2:11-14, 3:4-7
The Incarnation, the Basis of Christian Ethics and Piety
[Beloved], [3:4] ... when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior ap-
peared, [5] he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but
in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Ho-
ly Spirit, [6] which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
[7] so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eter-
nal life.
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Commentary:
2:11-14. This section is almost like a hymn in praise of saving grace and God’s
loving kindness as manifested in Christ. The terse, sober style, with phrases
piled on one another, and very few verbs, is typical of St. Paul. The duties just
described (2:1-10) — of older men, women, young people and slaves — all point
to Christians’ having a common lifestyle, which is the fruit of grace. God is the
source of that grace, and salvation its goal, and it is given to us through Jesus
Christ.
Thus, divine grace manifested in the Incarnation is actively at work to redeem us;
it brings salvation; it sanctifies us, enabling us to live godly lives; and it is the ba-
sis of our hope in the second coming of the Lord. All these dimensions of the ac-
tion of grace summarize revealed doctrine on righteousness (justification) in Je-
sus Christ. Thus, in the Incarnation, God’s salvific will, embracing all men, is ma-
nifested in a special way (cf. 1 Tim 2:4); in the Redemption, Christ, the only Me-
diator and Savior (cf. 1 Tim 2:5) obtains for us the gift of grace, whereby man be-
comes a sharer in the good things of salvation. Jesus is our model; by means of
grace he instructs the Christian on how to control his defects and grow in virtue.
The instruction we receive is not only an external one: God inwardly moves us to
seek holiness (cf. Rom 5:1-5 and note). Grace also channels our hope, for Chris-
tians are motivated not only by the memory of a past event (our Lord’s life on
earth) but also, and especially, by the fact that Jesus is in the glory of heaven
even now and that we are invited to share his inheritance (cf. 2 Pet 3:12-13).
13. “The glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ”: an explicit confession
of faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ, who is stated at one and at the same time
(with only one article in the original Greek) to be God and Savior. This expression
is the hinge on which the entire hymn turns: Jesus Christ our God is the one who
came at the Incarnation, who will manifest himself fully at his second coming,
and who through his work of redemption has made it possible for man to live a
life pleasing to God.
This verse is reminiscent of Romans 9:5, where St. Paul wrote: “to them belong
the patriarchs, and of their race according to the flesh is the Christ, who is God
over all, blessed for ever. Amen.”
14. The mention of Jesus Christ at the end of the previous verse leads St. Paul to
summarize the doctrine of the Redemption in this lovely passage. Four essential
elements in redemption are listed: Christ’s self-giving; redemption from all iniquity;
purification; and Christ’s establishment of a people of his own dedicated to good
deeds. The reference to Christ’s self-giving clearly means whereby we are set
free from the slavery of sin; Christ’s sacrifice is the cause of the freedom of the
children of God (analogously, God’s action during the Exodus liberated the peo-
ple of Israel). Purification, a consequence of redemption, enables a man to be-
come part of God’s own people (cf. Ezek 37-23). The expression “a people of his
own” is a clear allusion to Exodus 19:5: through the covenant of Sinai God made
Israel his own people, different from other nations; through the New Covenant of
his blood Jesus forms his own people, the Church, which is open to all nations:
“As Israel according to the flesh which wandered in the desert was already called
the Church of God, so, too, the new Israel, which advances in this present era in
search of a future and permanent city, is called also the Church of Christ. It is
Christ indeed who has purchased it with his own blood; he has filled it with his
Spirit; he has provided means adapted to its visible and social union [...]. Des-
tined to extend to all regions of the earth, it enters into human history, though it
transcends at once all times and all racial boundaries” (”Lumen Gentium”, 9).
3-7. The main subject of the chapter is the theological basis of social obligations
(vv. 1-2); every Christian should bear witness to salvation history, to the change
from sin to grace, and the change from an era of slavery and error to the era of
freedom and rebirth ushered in by Christ.
The “old regime” is sketched out in a very vivid way (v. 3), showing the effects
of sin on man in his three dimensions: in relation to himself, sin makes a person
foolish, rebellious, wayward, a slave; in respect of God, he becomes hateful in
his rebellious pride; and as far as others are concerned he becomes their enemy
— “hating one another”.
However, the coming of Christ has opened up a new panorama (vv. 4-7). As else-
where in these letters (cf. 1 Tim 3:15; Tit 2:11-14), we have here a hymn to Christ
which may well have come from primitive Christian liturgy or from a confession of
faith. It summarizes Christian teaching on the Incarnation, the Redemption and
the application of salvation to the individual.
According to this text, the Incarnation is the revelation of God our Savior, who
makes known his goodness (”benignity”, a word which often occurs in the Old
Testament and sometimes in the New: cf. Rom 2:4; 11:22; Gal 5:22; Eph 2:7)
and “loving goodness” (literally “philanthropy”, a word taken from Greek). The
Redemption is referred to in Old Testament language: “he saved us in virtue of
his own mercy.”
Finally, the Christian’s access to salvation is something gratuitous: without any
prior merit on our part, God’s mercy has sought us out (v. 5; cf. note on Rom 3:
27-31); Baptism is the door to salvation, for it is the sacrament of “regeneration
and renewal” (cf. Eph 5:26); the Holy Spirit sent by Christ (cf. Jn 14:26) makes
the waters of Baptism effective; his grace gives life to the soul and entitles it to
eternal life (cf. Gal 4:7; Rom 8:16-17). The Council of Trent specified that “justifi-
cation is not only the remission of sins, but sanctification and renovation of the
interior man through the voluntary reception of grace and gifts whereby a man
becomes just instead of unjust and a friend instead of an enemy, that he may
be an heir in the hope of life everlasting” (”De Iustificatione”, chap. 7).
The magnificent resume of faith in Christ contained in Titus 3:3-7 also helps Chris-
tians see how to approach their work and social involvement; the Second Vatican
Council has reminded us once again that “the promised and hoped-for restoration
has already begun in Christ. It is carried forward in the sending of the Holy Spirit
and through him continues in the Church in which, through our faith, we learn the
meaning of our earthly life, while we bring to term, with hope of future good, the
task allotted to us in the world by the Father, and so work out our salvation”
(”Lumen Gentium”, 48).
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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, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
The Preaching of John the Baptist (Continuation)
Jesus Is Baptized
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Commentary:
15-17. Using excessive imagery, John announces Christian Baptism, proclaiming
that he is not the Messiah; He, who is on His way, will come with the authority
of supreme Judge that belongs to God, and with the dignity of the Messiah, who
has no human equal.
21-22. In its liturgy the Church remembers the first three solemn manifestations
of Christ’s divinity—the adoration of the Magi (Mt 2:11), the baptism of Jesus (Lk
3:21-22; Mt 3:13-17; Mk 1:9-11) and the first miracle of our Lord worked, at the
wedding at Cana (Jn 2:11). In the adoration of the Magi God revealed the divinity
of Jesus by means of the star. At His baptism the voice of God the Father, co-
ming “from heaven”, reveals to John the Baptist and to the Jewish people — and
thereby to all men—this profound mystery of Christ’s divinity. At the wedding at
Cana, Jesus “manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him” (Jn 2:11).
“When He attained to the perfect age,” St Thomas Aquinas comments, “when
the time came for Him to teach, to work miracles and to draw men to himself,
then was it fitting for His Godhead to be attested to from on high by the Father’s
testimony, so that His teaching might be the more credible: ‘The Father who
sent Me has Himself borne witness to Me’ (Jn 5:37)” (”Summa Theologiae”, III,
q. 39, a. 8 ad 3).
21. In Christ’s baptism we can find a reflection of the way the sacrament of Bap-
tism affects a person. Christ’s baptism was the exemplar of our own. In it the
mystery of the Blessed Trinity was revealed, and the faithful, on receiving Bap-
tism are consecrated by the invocation of and by the power of the Blessed Trini-
ty. Similarly, Heaven opening signifies that the power, the effectiveness, of this
sacrament comes from above, from God, and that the baptized have the road
to Heaven opened up for them, a road which Original Sin had closed. Jesus’s
prayer after His baptism teaches us that “after Baptism man needs to pray con-
tinually in order to enter Heaven; for though sins are remitted through Baptism,
there still remains the inclination to sin which assails us from within, and also
the flesh and the devil which assails us from without” (St Thomas, “ibid.”, III, q.
39, a. 5).
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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, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.