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From: 2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13

David’s repentance (continued)

[7] Nathan said to David, “You are the man. Thus says the Lord, the God of
Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of
Saul; [8] and I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your
bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if this were to little,
I would add to you as much more. [9] Why have you despised the word of the
Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have smitten Uriah the Hittite with the
sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the
sword of the Ammonites. [10] Now therefore the sword shall never depart from
your house, because you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah
the Hittite to be your wife.

[13] David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to
David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.”

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Commentary: None available.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Galatians 2:16, 19-21

Peter and Paul at Antioch (continued)

[16] [We] who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through
faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified
by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no
one be justified.

[19] For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. [20] I have been
crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the
life I know live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me. [21] I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification were
through the law, then Christ died to no purpose.

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Commentary:

16. “All that shadowy observance”, St Augustine comments, “had to cease in an
unnoticed way, gradually, as the pace grew of the wholesome preaching of the
grace of Christ […], during the lifetime of that generation of Jews who had
experienced the physical presence of our Lord and had lived through the
apostolic times. This sufficed to make it clear that those practices were not to be
deemed hateful or idolatrous. But neither were they to be kept up any longer than
that, in case people might hold them to be necessary, as if salvation came from
them or could not be obtained without them” (Letter 82, II, 15).

We might say that there are three periods in observance of the prescriptions of the
Law. In the first period, prior to Christ’s passion, the precepts of the Law were
“alive”, that is, it was obligatory to keep them. A second period was between the
Passion and the spread of apostolic preaching: the Law’s precepts were already
“dead”, no longer obligatory, but there were not “lethal”: Jewish converts could
keep them provided that they did not rely on them, for Christ was already the
basis of their hope. In the third stage, in which we find ourselves, observance of
Jewish precepts as a means of salvation amounts to denying the redemptive
power of Christ and therefore they could be termed “lethal” (cf. St Thomas
Aquinas, Commentary on Gal, ad loc.).

St Augustine uses a very interesting comparison: with the arrival of faith in
Christ the old “sacraments” of the Law come to resemble the dead – who merit
respect and honour. They should be interred with all the necessary ritual,
religiously, reverently. They should not be thrown out, to be devoured by
predators. But if a Christian now wants to keep them in force “disturbing the
ashes which lie at rest, he would not be a pious son or a relative who keeps
vigil at the grave, but an impious profaner of tombs” (Letter 82, ibid.).

19-20. Through the sacrament of Baptism we have been united to Christ in a
union which far exceeds mere solidarity of feeling: we have been crucified with
him, dying with him to sin, so as to rise reborn into a new life (cf. note on Rom 6:
3-8). This new life requires us to live in a new, supernatural way, which with the
help of grace gradually becomes stronger and stronger and acts to perfect man’s
behaviour: he is no longer living on a purely natural level. “That is why a
Christian should live as Christ lived, making the affections of Christ his own, so
that he can exclaim with St Paul: ‘It is now no longer I who live, but Christ lives
in me’ […] to such an extent that each Christian is not simply alter Christus:
another Christ, but ipse Christus: Christ himself!” (J. Escriva, Christ is Passing
By, 103 and 104).

The life in Christ which the Apostle is speaking about here is not a matter of
feelings: it is something real which grace brings about: “Paul’s soul was in
between God and his body: his body was alive, and moved, thanks to the action
of Paul’s soul; but his soul drew its life from Christ’s action. Therefore, in referring
to the life of the flesh, which he was living, St Paul speaks of ‘the life I now live in
the flesh’; but as far as relationship with God was concerned, Christ it was who
was living in Paul, and therefore he says, ‘I live by faith in the Son of God’: it is
he who lives in me and makes me act” (St Thomas Aquinas Commentary on
Gal, ad loc.). This is why the Apostle goes as far as to say elsewhere, “to me to
live is Christ” (Phil 1:21).

All this is a consequence of Christ’s love: he freely gave himself up to death out
of love for each and every one of us. We, like St Paul, can come to appreciate,
through faith, that Christ’s passion affects us personally. Fro this faith will arise
that love which “has the power to effect union […], which inspires those who love
to leave where they are, and which does not allow them to stay the way they are,
but rather transforms them into the object of their love” (Pseudo-Dionysius, De
divinis nominibis, 4). People who are very keen on academic pursuits or on
sports often refer to these things as being “their life”. If someone pursues only
his own interest, he is living for himself. If, on the contrary, he seeks the good of
others, we say that he “lives for others”. Therefore, if we love Jesus and are
united to him, we will live “for” him, “by” him, “through” him. “Do you love the
earth?”, St Augustine exclaims. “You will be earth. Do you love God? What am
I to say? That you will be God? I almost don’t dare to say it, but Scripture says
it, ‘You are gods, sons of the Most High’ (Ps 82:6)” (In Epist. Ioann. ad Parthos,
II, 14).

This profound truth should move us to devote ourselves to an asceticism moti-
vated by love: “Let us hasten, therefore, full of spirit, to the fight, fixing our gaze
on the crucified Jesus, who from the Cross offers us his help and promises us
victory and laurels. If we happened to stumble in the past, it was because we did
not keep before our eyes the wounds and disgrace which our Redeemer suffered
and because we did not seek his help. For the future, let us not cease to keep
before our eyes him who suffered on our account and who is ever-ready to come
to our aid […]; if we do so, we shall surely emerge victorious over our enemies”
(St Alphonsus Mary Liguori, The Love of Jesus Christ, 3).

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.