Faith

Saving the saved- Friday, 31st week in ordinary time – Romans 15:14-21

Star Treks by-line screamed, “To boldly go where no man has gone before”. The challenge for Captain James Tiberius Kirk was to lead his space ship, the Enterprise, into uncharted territory in a peace keeping mission for the federation. The mission for Captain Kirk was not without incident and even peace missions can be met with hostility.

St Paul lived this maxim two thousand years ago. He boldly went where the apostles were reluctant to go, into Gentile territory. For St Paul, not a moment was to be lost in making Christ known and as we know from Romans he soon realised the futility of waiting for the Jews to respond to the call to follow Christ. Paul went right out to the Gentiles and when he did he did not play it safe. He says to the Romans. “So that from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum I have finished preaching the Gospel of Christ. Thus I aspire to proclaim the Gospel not where Christ has already been named, so that I do not build on another’s foundation.”

Paul was not a man who walked the diplomatic road. He called a spade a spade and most often described even its defects. Above all, he was faithful to his calling and unapologetic in his message. In today’s reading to the Romans he says, “But I have written to you rather boldly in some respects to remind you, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in performing the priestly service of the Gospel of God, so that the offering up of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”

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Faith

You want to overcome anxiety and fear?

A few years ago I learnt how to overcome fear and anxiety, and that too in a hospital.  I happened to visit a parishioner who was admitted into the Holy Spirit Hospital in Mumbai, and on my way out I heard someone calling out to me. It happened to be a young man whose name simply eludes me.  He was excited; they were expecting their first child and asked if I would bless his wife.

To be honest I could not remember him from Adams. He chatted away excitedly like we were bosom buddies who had got off the phone fifteen minutes ago.  I stretched my mind as much as I could, trying to recall at break neck speed, how we knew each other. My mind kept racing back and forth, snatching at the bits of information he babbled, hoping to find that piece in the puzzle which would help me place him. Panic swept over me as we approached the maternity ward. I felt so ashamed I could not place him, while he seemed to know so much about me. I was like a computer screen that just hung; no cursor blinking!

As the door swung open I prepared myself for a quick exit, lest my pea sized memory betray me. As I stepped into the room, I realized that I had just jumped from the frying pan into the fire; the room was full of relatives. The wife was delighted to have me in the room. ‘Gosh’ I thought, she knows my name and I can’t even place her.  If you have ever been in a situation such as this, you would know that your best bet would be to bid your time talking generalities, till someone slips you that one bit of information that makes you go, ‘Aha, now I know who you are’. I had no such luck that day!

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Faith

The rest is commentary- Wednesday, 31st week in ordinary time – Romans 13:8-10

We live in a world where debt is no longer a stranger to our lives. There was a time when the world only spent the money they had in their pockets, nothing more. The culture of credit and plastic money is presented as a fad to be envied and dreams are sold on ‘easy installments.’

I guess for those who build castles in the air the reality only sets in when the rent is due and that’s a bit too late for many young people who by then are sucked into a whirlpool of debt. St Paul understood the evil of debt, for this language of obligation defined the livelihood of Roman citizens in many spheres of life.

To the emperor they “owed” honour and allegiance; to their benefactors they owed money, possessions, honour. Slaves owed service and their very lives and wives owed submission, and so on. To owe someone meant you were in their debt and often these debts were like knots that one was forever tied up in.

For Paul, if a Christian is in debt then it should only be a debt of love that is owed to ones neighbour. Paul exhorts the Christians to live a life of love, one that respects natural law. One is not to kill, steal, commit adultery or covet; one is but to love.

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You’re the only Jesus some will ever see – Tuesday, 31st week in ordinary time – Romans 12:5-16ab

If Christian love was expounded by St Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, then Christian ethics is expounded in Romans 12. Paul lists the mark of a true Christian community, one that is marked by “genuine love”. He makes a passionate plea when he asks the community in Rome to “let love be genuine, hate what is evil and hold fast to what is good”.

Paul was a realistic man; he knew the difficulties the Christian community faced. When the Jews and Jewish Christians had to leave Rome because of Emperor Claudius’s edict of 49 AD, the Gentile Christians were allowed to remain behind. This Gentile Christian community then developed its own independent identity from the Jewish Christians who on their return to Rome found a situation different from what they had left behind, when they were forced to depart. The Gentile Christians now felt no qualms about dietary and calendaric regulation. The tables of influence had turned and animosity had most certainly set in.

Paul wishes to set right the tone of love that should exist first among Christians themselves. If this love shines through, then those in Rome who held other beliefs and were observant of the behaviour of the Christian community would be easily influenced. The Christian was called to live a higher calling, bending his heart to ‘agape’ or an unconditional love but also in this situation to foster “phielo” or family love, for one another. He sets the bar high in calling the community members to outdo each other, not in hate as often happens, but in love. It is almost as if he is calling for a contest among Christians; who will be the one to outdo the other in love?

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 God writes straight on crooked lines- Monday, 31st Week in ordinary time – Romans 11:29-36

When Paul began writing his letter to the Romans, he stated emphatically, “the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (1:16). Paul does not hide both his and God’s preferential love for the Jews who were His chosen ones. But we know that the majority of the Jews rejected the Gospel much to the dismay of Paul. Are the Jews to be rejected by God for their behaviour?

Paul’s explanation of the Gospel through the first half of his letter culminates in chapter eight with the assurance of God’s irrevocable promises to his people: “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (verse 28) That assurance is repeated once again in 11:29, “God has not rejected his people because God’s promises are irrevocable”.

A reading of the Old Testament reiterates the merciful action of God who time and time again bent his heart to spare his elect. But time and time again it is His elect who reject the Gospel. Paul acknowledges the Jews as the enemies of the Gospel yet he affirms their special election by God and calls them God’s beloved. For in the end, God is merciful and He does not break his promises. We might not understand how everything will work out, but Faith rests on hopes like this.

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