The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today underline our need to make a choice in the direction we choose for life in relationship with the Divine or for death in failure to seek our True Self as a child of the Creator.
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| Choices for our True Self |
The reading from the Letter to the Romans presents freedom from sin and Life in God as our choice of good over evil.
* [6:20] You were free from righteousness: expressed ironically, for such freedom is really tyranny. The commercial metaphors in Rom 6:21–23 add up only one way: sin is a bad bargain.1
The Two Ways described in Psalm 1 contrast the life of the good with that of scoffers.
* [Psalm 1] A preface to the whole Book of Psalms, contrasting with striking similes the destiny of the good and the wicked. The Psalm views life as activity, as choosing either the good or the bad. Each “way” brings its inevitable consequences. The wise through their good actions will experience rootedness and life, and the wicked, rootlessness and death.2
In the Gospel of Luke Jesus outlines that following Him may be the cause of division from those who choose self satisfaction.
* [12:49–53] Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom is a refining and purifying fire. His message that meets with acceptance or rejection will be a source of conflict and dissension even within families.3
Tom Purcell asks Why is Jesus eager to build a fire? What is the fuel that His fire needs? What are the intended results He hopes to accomplish?
The fire He wants to build is one in the heart, one that is fueled by the love and care and respect that He has felt and about which He teaches, and the faith and love of those who believe in and follow His message. His fire is an animating force for good, not for destruction. It is an extension of God’s presence in us...Ignatius closed many of his letters to his companions with the words “Ite, inflammate omina” – go, set the world on fire...Ignatius recognized the fuel Jesus wanted us to burn and the need for the fire needs constant encouragement and replenishment. While the love we receive from God never fades or diminishes, our human frailty means our love is not boundless. But we know that by loving, we can love more. We build and grow our fire with the kindling of small bits of love and turn it into a roaring conflagration with the logs of deep and committed love.4
Don Schwager quotes “The fire of the Gospel and being baptized in the Holy Spirit,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).
"We affirm that the fire that Christ sent out is for humanity's salvation and profit. May God grant that all our hearts be full of this. The fire is the saving message of the Gospel and the power of its commandments. We were cold and dead because of sin and in ignorance of him who by nature is truly God. The gospel ignites all of us on earth to a life of piety and makes us fervent in spirit, according to the expression of blessed Paul (Romans 12:11). Besides this, we are also made partakers of the Holy Spirit, who is like fire within us. We have been baptized with fire and the Holy Spirit. We have learned the way from what Christ says to us. Listen to his words: 'Truly I say to you, that except a man be born of water and spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God' (John 3:5). It is the divinely inspired Scripture's custom to give the name of fire sometimes to the divine and sacred words and to the efficacy and power which is by the Holy Spirit by which we are made fervent in spirit." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 94)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Romans 6:19-23 asks why in the world would Paul call himself and other Christians “slaves of God” (Romans 6:22)? The first thing to remember is that Jesus came into the world to free us from sin, the slavery that every human being experiences. And second, God gave us the gift of free will, so the last thing he wants is to take it away. Instead, he lets us choose whether or not to follow him and how we will serve him—if we serve him at all.
This is exactly why Paul tells us to present ourselves by our own choice as “slaves to righteousness” (Romans 6:19). He urges us to freely choose to follow God’s commands and seek his will.
Still, why would anyone who has been freed from one kind of slavery—slavery to sin—want to enter into another oppressive, life-threatening form of slavery? They wouldn’t! The slavery that Paul has in mind is completely different. It’s a slavery of love. It’s service born out of gratitude and humility, not out of coercion and abuse. It’s a voluntary gift of our lives to God, who has given us everything.6
Friar Jude Winkler reviews the assertion of Paul that we need to choose to be slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness. Choosing to live Jesus Way of peace will bring rejection as a consequence. Friar Jude supposes that “no good deed goes unpunished” yet we demonstrate our motives through living with integrity.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, asks if we recognize that any God worthy of the name must transcend creeds and denominations, time and place, nations and ethnicities, and all the vagaries of gender and sexual orientation, extending to the limits of all we can see, suffer, and enjoy?
You are not your gender, your nationality, your ethnicity, your skin color, or your social class. These are not the qualities of your True Self in God! Why, oh why, do Christians allow temporary costumes, or what Thomas Merton called the “false self,” to pass for the substantial self, which is always “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3)? It seems that we really do not know our own Gospel. Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926), put it this way:
God speaks to each of us as he makes us,then walks with us silently out of the night.These are the words we dimly hear:You, sent out beyond your recall,go to the limits of your longing.Embody me.Flare up like flameand make big shadows I can move in.Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.Just keep going. No feeling is final.Don’t let yourself lose me.Nearby is the country they call life.You will know it by its seriousness.Give me your hand. [1]
I think this poem beautifully expresses God’s desire for us to live into the fullness of our humanity and our identity7
The Sacred Scripture today reveals that to become all that God intends for children of the Creator, we freely choose Jesus Way.
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