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.
