Thursday, October 13, 2021

 

Thursday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 3:21-30; Luke 11:47-54)

Say You’re One of Us is a book of short stories written by a Nigerian Jesuit.  The title is the advice given to a minority child on how to survive religious and ethnic persecution.  Is St. Paul saying that something similar in today’s first reading?  Is salvation achieved by just saying that we believe in Jesus Christ?

It is not. Faith is more than an intellectual assent to religious truths.  After all, Christians believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.   Faith in him must include a commitment to his ways as well as his teaching.  In another letter Paul is clearer on this point.  He writes to the Galatians that circumcision counts for nothing, “but only faith working through love.”  By “circumcision” Paul means a work of the law which, for him, is unimportant.  The love he has in mind is not a vague feeling of care but deeds that help others.

Jesus Christ showed his Father’s care by dying on the cross.  More than anything else that deed expressed the totality of love.  God loves us more than we love ourselves. Believing in Him includes a commitment to reflect this love to others.

No comments: