From: Romans 5:5b-11
Reconciliation Through Christ’s Sacrifice, the Basis of our Hope
[6] While we were yet helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. [7]
Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man—though perhaps for a good man one
will dare even to die. [8] But God shows His love for us in that while we were yet
sinners Christ died for us. [9] Since, therefore, we are now justified by His blood,
much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. [10] For, if while we
were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more,
now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. [11] Not only so, but
we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have
now received our reconciliation.
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Commentary:
1-5. In this very moving passage God helps us see “the divine interlacing of the
three theological virtues which form the backing upon which the true life of every
Christian man or woman has to be woven” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 205).
Faith, hope and charity act in us in turn, causing us to grow in the life of grace.
Thus, faith leads us to know and be sure of things we hope for (cf. Hebrews 11:
1); hope ensures that we shall attain them, and enlivens our love of God; charity,
for its part, gives us energy to practise the other two theological virtues. The de-
finitive outcome of this growth in love, faith and hope is the everlasting peace
that is of the essence of eternal life.
As long as we are in this present life we do have peace to some degree—but with
tribulation. Therefore, the peace attainable in this life does not consist in the con-
tentment of someone who wants to have no problems, but rather in the resolute-
ness full of hope (”character”) of someone who manages to rise above suffering
and stays faithful through endurance. Suffering is necessary for us, because it
is the normal way to grow in virtue (cf. James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:5-7); that is why
it is providential (cf. Philippians 1:19; Colossians 1:24) and leads to joy and hap-
piness (1 Thessalonians 1:6).
“A person who hopes for something and strives eagerly to attain it is ready to
endure all kinds of difficulty and distress. Thus, for example, a sick person if he
is eager to be healthy, is happy to take the bitter medicine which will cure him.
Therefore, one sign of the ardent hope that is ours thanks to Christ is that we
glory not only in the hope of future glory, but also in the afflictions which we suf-
fer in order to attain it” (St. Thomas Aquinas, “Commentary on Romans, ad.
loc.”).
A person who lives by faith, hope and charity realizes that suffering is not some-
thing meaningless but rather is designed by God for our perfecting. Perfection
consists “in the bringing of our wills so closely into conformity with the will of
God that, as soon as we realize He wills anything, we desire it ourselves with
all our might, and take the bitter with the sweet, knowing that to be His Majes-
ty’s will [...]. If our love is perfect, it has this quality of leading us to forget our
own pleasure in order to please Him whom we love. And that is indeed what
happens” (St. Teresa of Avila, “Book of Foundations”, Chapter 5).
5. The love which St. Paul speaks of here is, at one and the same time, God’s
love for us — manifested in His sending the Holy Spirit — and the love which God
places in our soul to enable us to love Him. The Second Council of Orange, quo-
ting St. Augustine, explains this as follows: “To love God is entirely a gift of God.
He, without being loved, loves us and enabled us to love Him. We were loved
when we were still displeasing to Him, so that we might be given something
whereby we might please Him. So it is that the Spirit of the Father and the Son,
whom we love with the Father and the son, pours charity into our hearts” (Se-
cond Council of Orange, “De Gratia”, Canon 25; cf. St. Augustine, “In Ioann.
Evang.”, 102, 5).
6-11. The friendship which reigned in Paradise between God and man was fol-
lowed by the enmity created by Adam’s sin. By promising a future redeemer,
God once more offered mankind His friendship. The scale of God’s love for us
can be seen in the “reconciliation” which the Apostle speaks about, which took
place on the Cross, when Christ did away with this enmity, making our peace
with God and reconciling us to Him (cf. Ephesians 2:15-16).
The petition in the Our Father, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those
that trespass against us”, is an invitation to imitate the way God treats us, be-
cause by loving our enemies “there shines forth in us some likeness to God our
Father, who, by the death of His Son, ransomed from everlasting perdition and
reconciled to Himself the human race, which before was most unfriendly and
hostile to Him” (”St. Pius V Catechism”, IV, 14, 19).
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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 15:3-7
The Lost Sheep
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Commentary:
1-32. Jesus’ actions manifest God’s mercy: He receives sinners in order to con-
vert them. The scribes and Pharisees, who despised sinners, just cannot under-
stand why Jesus acts like this; they grumble about Him; and Jesus uses the op-
portunity to tell these Mercy parables. “The Gospel writer who particularly treats
of these themes in Christ’s teaching is Luke, whose Gospel has earned the title
of ‘the Gospel of mercy’” (John Paul II, “Dives In Misericordia”, 3).
In this chapter St. Luke reports three of these parables in which Jesus describes
the infinite, fatherly mercy of God and His joy at the conversion of the sinner.
The Gospel teaches that no one is excluded from forgiveness and that sinners
can become beloved children of God if they repent and are converted. So much
does God desire the conversion of sinners that each of these parables ends with
a refrain, as it were, telling of the great joy in Heaven over sinner who repents.
5-6. Christian tradition, on the basis of this and other Gospel passages (cf. John
10:11), applies this parable to Christ, the Good Shepherd, who misses and then
seeks out the lost sheep: the Word, by becoming man, seeks out mankind,
which has strayed through sinning. Here is St. Gregory the Great’s commentary:
“He put the sheep on His shoulders because, on taking on human nature, He
burdened Himself with our sins” (”In Evangelia Homiliae”, II, 14).
The Second Vatican Council applies these verses of St. Luke to the way priests
should approach their pastoral work: “They should be mindful that by their daily
conduct and solicitude they display the reality of a truly priestly and pastoral mi-
nistry both to believers and unbelievers alike, to Catholics and non-Catholics; that
they are bound to bear witness before all men of the truth and of the life, and as
good shepherds seek after those too who, whilst having been baptized in the Ca-
tholic Church, have given up the practice of the Sacraments, or even fallen away
from the faith” (”Lumen Gentium”, 28). However, every member of the faithful
should show this same kind of concern — expressed in a fraternal way — towards
his brothers and sisters, towards everyone on the road to sanctification and sal-
vation.
7. This does not mean that our Lord does not value the perseverance of the just:
He is simply emphasizing the joy of God and the saints over the conversion of a
sinner. This is clearly a call to repentance, to never doubt God’s readiness to for-
give. “Another fall, and what a fall!... Must you give up hope? No. Humble your-
self and, through Mary, your Mother, have recourse to the merciful Love of Jesus.
A “miserere”, and lift up your heart! And now begin again” (St. J. Escriva, “The
Way”, 711).
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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.