TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
(Sirach 27:33-28:9; Romans 14:7-9; Matthew 18:21-35)
Let us turn one more time to Paul's magnificent letter to
the Romans. We have been reading it since June. But today is the last Sunday of
this liturgical year that it is used.
The reading is taken from the last part of the letter, which
provides the appropriate response to salvation in Christ. Paul has said that
Christians are to conduct themselves in holy ways. They must not conform to the
present world. Rather they have to be transformed so that they think and act
according to the will of God. As a guide, Paul provides them with the law of
love: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Now Paul wants to cover a problem that has evidently arisen
in the community. Some eat everything laid before them without wondering if the
food was offered to idols. They don't care about the issue. Meanwhile others feel that if it were offered
to idols, it would be tainted and unacceptable to eat. Although Paul himself
has no difficulty in eating such food, he recommends that each person be
respectful of others.
We see the sensibility that Paul wants to foster when a host
today gives his guests a meatless option on Friday. He knows and respects that
some Catholics maintain the tradition of abstaining on this day throughout the
year as in Lent.
Along with the requirement of love Paul is emphasizing
another great Christian value -- unity in Christ. Baptism has united us to
Christ as our first reference of existence. (This can be difficult for
some. Please pay attention.) More than
we are black, white, or of another race; more than we are Mexican, American, or
Chinese; more than we are RodrÃguez, Olson, or Biden; we belong to Jesus
Christ. We should never allow ourselves to be separated from him or from one
another in him. Therefore, Paul says: “None of us lives for himself, nor dies
for himself. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die to the
Lord”.
As always, the living of the word of God can be seen in the
saints. Pierre Claverie was bishop of Oran, a region of Algeria plagued by
Islamic terrorism in the 1990s. Bishop Claverie knew of the danger of staying
in the country, which was his native land, but he rejected the possibility of
fleeing. He expressed his perspective to the nuns of a cloister in France: “We
are here for this crucified Messiah. For nothing else and no one else! … We are
here like someone who is at the side of a friend's bed… sick, silently
squeezing his hand and wiping the sweat from his forehead”. Evidently, he could
see Christ in the surrounding Muslims who were also being victimized by the
terrorism. As he lived for Christ, Monsignor Claverie died for Christ. He was
martyred in August 1996. At his funeral
the Muslims who filled the cathedral said: "He was our bishop too."
But it is not only for the reason of being in solidarity
with the suffering that we adhere to Christ. Paul says that Christ is Lord of
the living and the dead. The dead are not exterminated but live in Christ.
Furthermore, since he rose from the dead, those who adhere to him will rise
again. We do not care that many do not recognize this hope. Two realities bear
witness to it: the testimony of the Bible and our experience of God's goodness.
Come what may, we will live for Christ until the promise of his eternal life is
fulfilled.
