Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
From: Romans 8:12-17
Life in the Spirit (Continuation)
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[12] So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh--[13] for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.
Christians Are Children of God
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[14] For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. [15] For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" [16] it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, [17] and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
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Commentary:
14-30. The life of a Christian is sharing in the life of Christ, God's only Son. By becoming, through adoption, true children of God we have, so to speak, a right to share also in Christ's inheritance—eternal life in heaven (vv. 14-18). This divine life in us, begun in Baptism through rebirth in the Holy Spirit, will grow under the guidance of this Spirit, who makes us ever more like Christ (vv. 14, 26-27). So, our adoption as sons is already a fact--we already have the first-fruits of the Spirit (v. 23)--but only at the end of time, when our body rises in glory, will our redemption reach its climax (vv. 23-25). Meanwhile we are in a waiting situation--not free from suffering (v. 18), groans (v. 23) and weakness (v. 26)--a situation characterized by a certain tension between what we already possess and are, and what we yearn for. This yearning is something which all creation experiences; by God's will, its destiny is intimately linked to our own, and it too awaits its transformation at the end of the world (vv. 19-22). All this is happening in accordance with a plan which God has, a plan established from all eternity which is unfolding in the course of time under the firm guidance of divine Providence (vv. 28-30).
14-15. St. J. Escriva taught thousands of people about this awareness of divine filiation which is such an important part of the Christian vocation. Here is what he says, for example, in "The Way", 267: "We've got to be convinced that God is always near us. We live as though he were far away, in the heavens high above, and we forget that he is also continually by our side.
"He is there like a loving Father. He loves each of us more than all the mothers in the world can love their children--helping us, inspiring us, blessing...and forgiving.
"How often we have misbehaved and then cleared the frowns from our parents' brows, telling them: I won't do it any more!--That same day, perhaps, we fall again...--And our father, with feigned harshness in his voice and serious face, reprimands us while in his heart he is moved, realizing our weakness and thinking: poor child, how hard he tries to behave well!
"We've got to be filled, to be imbued with the idea that our Father, and very much our Father, is God who is both near us and in heaven."
This awareness of God as Father was something which the first chancellor of the University of Navarre experienced with special intensity one day in 1931: "They were difficult times, from a human point of view, but even so I was quite sure of the impossible—this impossibility which you can now see as an accomplished fact. I felt God acting within me with overriding force, filling my heart and bringing to my lips this tender invocation--'Abba! Pater!' I was out in the street, in a tram: being out in the street is no hindrance for our contemplative dialogue; for us, the hustle and bustle of the world is a place for prayer" (S. Bernal, "Monsignor Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer", p. 214).
Jesus Cures a Woman on the Sabbath
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[10] Now He (Jesus) was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. [11] And there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. [12] And when Jesus saw her, He called her and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your infirmity." [13] And He laid His hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and she praised God. [14] But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath Day." [15] Then the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead it away to water it? [16] And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath Day?" [17] As He said this, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by Him.
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Commentary:
10-17. As was the custom, our Lord used to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath. Noticing this poor woman He uses His power and mercy to cure her. The ordinary people are delighted, but the ruler of the synagogue, apparently zealous about fulfilling the Law (cf. Exodus 20:8; 31:14; Leviticus 19:3-30), publicly upbraids our Lord. Jesus energetically censures this warped interpretation of the Law and stresses the need for mercy and understanding, which is what pleases God (cf. Hosea 6:6; James 2:13).