Tuesday of the
Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
(Romans 5:12.15b.17-19.20b-21; Luke 12:35-38)
The Protestant theologian surprised himself. He picked up a copy of Blessed John Henry
Newman’s Apologia pro Vita Sua. He expected that reading the work would
draw a definitive line between himself and the great Catholic convert. He wanted to hate Newman. But thinking through his ideas, he found
himself drawn to Newman’s argumentation.
His adversary showed him the priority of dogma over works and
feelings. Newman explained convincingly
what is believed about Jesus is foundational to following him. The incident illustrates what St. Paul is
telling us in today’s first reading: where sin abounds, grace abounds even
more.
Paul is trying to make sense of a fallen world. Humans sin.
In so doing, they have found themselves confronting death and all sorts
of other troubles. But sin has been more
than compensated for by Jesus. Being
both God and human, his obedience has made up for human culpability. Because of Jesus’s returning God’s favor to
humanity, humans can love one another truly and so merit eternal life.
We sometimes belittle theology. We may not think it important that Jesus has
two natures which are completely separate although unified in a single person. Granted, such distinctions are not in the end
more important for us as individuals than following his teaching. Still an appreciation of who he is should
give us more reason to heed his words.
