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From: Romans 6:12-18

Liberation from Sin

[12] Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their
passions. [13] Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness,
but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life,
and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. [14] For sin will
have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

[15] What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?
By no means! [16] Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as
obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which
leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? [17] But thanks
be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from
the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, [18] and,
having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

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Commentary:

12-13. Our body, while forming one substance with our soul, is also an instru-
ment (like a pen in the hand of a writer) which can be used either to do works
of justice and piety or to enter into combat against the spirit. True, it is a “mortal
body”, but, St John Chrysostom comments, “It is not in any sense an evil thing,
because it can be a weapon of holiness and righteousness [...]. Our body stands
between vice and virtue. It is a weapon we can freely put to one use or the other.
The soldier who fights to defend his country uses the same weapons as the
criminal who makes an attempt on the life of his fellow citizens [...]. And so the
body can be an instrument of good or evil depending on what the soul chooses:
it is not naturally disposed to either course” (”Hom. on Rom”, 11).

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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: Luke 12:39-48

The Need for Vigilance and the Parable of the Steward (Continuation)

(Jesus said to His disciples,) [39] “But know this, that if the householder had
known at what hour the thief was coming, he would have been awake and
would not have left his house to be broken into. [40] You also must be ready;
for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

[41] Peter said, “Lord are you telling this parable for us or for all?” [42] And the
Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his master will set
over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? [43]
Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing. [44]
Truly I tell you, he will set him over all his possessions. [45] But if that servant
says to himself, `My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the
menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, [46] the
master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at
an hour he does not know, and will punish him, and put him with the unfaithful.
[47] And that servant who knew his master’s will, but did not make ready or act
according to his will, shall receive a severe beating. [48] But he who did not know,
and did what deserved a beating, shall receive a light beating. Everyone to whom
much is given, of him much will be required; and of him to whom men commit
much they will demand the more.”

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Commentary:

40. God has chosen to hide from us the time of our death and the time when
the world will come to an end. Immediately after death everyone undergoes the
Particular Judgment: “just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that
comes judgment...” (Hebrews 9:27). The end of the world is when the General
Judgment will take place.

41-48. After our Lord’s exhortation to vigilance, St. Peter asks a question (verse
41), the answer to which is the key to understanding this parable. On the one
hand, Jesus emphasizes that we simply do not know exactly when God is
going to ask us to render an account of our life; on the other—answering Peter’s
question—our Lord explains that His teaching is addressed to every individual.
God will ask everyone to render an account of his doings: everyone has a
mission to fulfill in this life and he has to account for it before the judgment seat
of God and be judged on what he has produced, be it much or little.

“Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the
Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is
completed (cf. Hebrews 9:27), we may merit to enter with Him into the marriage
feast and be numbered among the blessed (cf. Matthew 25:31-46) and not, like
the wicked and slothful servants (cf. Matthew 25:26), be ordered to depart into
the eternal fire (cf. Matthew 25:41)” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 48).

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