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From: Romans 11:29-36

The Conversion of the Jews (Continuation)

[29] For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. [30] Just as you were once
disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience,
[31] so they have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you
they may also receive mercy. [32] For God has consigned all men to disobedi-
ence, that he may have mercy upon all.

[33] O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsear-
chable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

[34] “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”

[35] “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”

[36] For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for
ever. Amen.

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Commentary:

29. God never goes back on anything he promises; therefore he continues to call
the Jews to enter the chosen people. He does not take account of their disobedi-
ence or their sins: he will love them with an everlasting love, as he promised the
patriarchs and in line with the merits accruing to them for their fidelity (cf. Rom
9:4-5). It is this very immutability of God’s love that makes it possible for “all Is-
rael” (v. 26) to be saved. God’s calling, which is eternal, cannot cease; but we for
our part can reject his call. This immutability of God’s plan is reassuring to us: it
means that even if we abandon him at any point, we can always return to our ear-
lier fidelity; he is still there, waiting for us.

33-36. God’s admirable goodness, to both Jews and Gentiles, permitting them to
disobey and then talking pity on them in their wretchedness, causes the Apostle
to pour out his heart in words reminiscent of the Book of Isaiah: “For my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and
my thoughts than your thoughts” (55:8-9). The designs of divine Providence may
disconcert us, may be difficult to understand; but if we remember how great God
is — he is beyond our comprehension — and how God’s power and faithfulness
overcome any obstacle man may place in God’s way we will realize that the very
things which seem to frustrate his plans actually serve to forward them.

The correct attitude of man to the designs of God is one of humility. This will
lead him to realize that the mysteries of God, which are intrinsically clear, seem
obscure to us, simply because our mind’s capacity is limited. Therefore, as Fray
Luis de Granada reminds us, we must avoid saying that “something cannot be
because we cannot understand it [...], for what is more in conformity with reason
than to think in the highest way of him who is the All-High and to attribute to him
the highest and best nature that our mind can conceive? [...] So it is that our fai-
lure to understand the sublimity of this mystery has a trace and scent of some-
thing divine, because, as we said, God being infinite must necessarily be beyond
our comprehension” (”Introduccion Al Simbolo De La Fe”, part IV).

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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.