Thursday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
(Romans 3:21-30; Luke 11:47-54)
Today’s first reading might be called, like John 3:16, “the
gospel in miniature.” It is not as
concise as saying, “God so loved the world…”.
But it expresses more completely the gratuity of human justification through
the martyrdom of Jesus Christ.
St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans has already established the
need of justification by explaining how all people sin. Whether recognized as “good” or “bad,” humans
have participated in Adam and Eve’s disobedience. They could hardly help from doing so because
their nature was distorted by sin. To be
justified, they needed more than a model but a representative totally innocent. This was the Son of God, Jesus of
Nazareth. His sacrifice of self on the
cross won justification for all who believe in him.
We respond to the gift of justification with
thankfulness. We make sacrifices of
gratitude for what Jesus did for us in prayer and good works. When we go out of our way to help another –
by telephoning someone whom we know to be in distress, for example – we imitate
Christ and give God a high form of praise.
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