24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
From: Romans 14:7-9
[7] None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. [8] If
we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so
then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. [9] For to
this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the
dead and of the living.
Commentary:
7-9. We do not own ourselves, we are not our own masters. God, One and
Three, has created us, and Jesus Christ has freed us from sin by
redeeming us with his Blood. Therefore, he is our lord, and we his
servants, committed to him body and soul. Just as the slave is not his
own master, but he himself and all he does redounds to the benefit of
his master, everything we are and everything we have are geared, in the
last analysis, not to our own use and benefit: we have to live and die
for the glory of God. He is lord of our life and of our death.
Commenting on these words St Gregory the Great says: "The saints,
therefore, do not live and do not die for themselves. They do not live
for themselves, because in all that they do they strive for spiritual
gain: by praying, preaching and persevering in good works, they seek the
increase of the citizens of the heavenly fatherland. Nor do they
die for themselves because men see them glorifying God by their death,
hastening to reach him through death" ("In Ezechielem Homiliae", II,
10).
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.
