OCTOBER 21, 2009- ROMANS 6:12-18;
LUKE 12:39-48
The Lord Jesus created a new period of human history when he
was born in the flesh. In his active life of preaching he established the basis
for a way of life that was conformed to this definitive stage of human
development. He taught the spiritual and moral requirements of active
participation in the society of the future that he termed the
Today’s two readings illustrate the sound insight that has given rise to this view of history in time. In writing to the Romans Saint Paul explains that the human condition must now be viewed in a fresh light that changes the way we understand our very self and our times. Encounter with Christ so marks the individual that it divides the meaning of life into a ‘before’ and ‘after’. Paul states the matter this way: “You are now under grace, not under the law . . . . Though once you were slaves of sin . . . freed from your sin, you became slaves of justice”. Incorporation into the living, risen Christ is what creates this ‘before’ and ‘after’, and in the process represents a movement from death into a new kind of life. The apostle says as much in our reading today: “offer yourselves to God as men who have come back from the dead to life.” This new time of our Lord is marked by accessibility to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Paul brings out this truth later on in this same letter when he sets out its theological meaning: “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death . . . since the Spirit of God has made his home in you.” (Rom 8:1, 9) The centuries following Christ is the historical period, then, of life in the Hoy Spirit for those who open their hearts to the Lord.
In the Gospel we just heard, Jesus also centers his teaching
on historical times. He is keenly aware that with his coming among us there is
a fresh urgency to the passing of time- though, as he points out elsewhere-
specific dates remain unknown. What is clear, he affirms, is that we live in a
world under a judgment that is liable to come upon us abruptly, when we least
expect it. The only way to be prepared is to avoid complacency by remaining
alert, vigilant, watching for God’s time that will surely come. His words are
intended to be a wake-up call, a warning lest his audience fail to prepare for
the final encounter with the Lord of history. On another occasion Jesus spoke
of the need to recognize the signs of the times. If he emphasized this point it
was because he knew well how easily we fail to understand the deeper meaning of
the events we live through. We are so
immersed in contemporary events that our vision tends to be limited by the
immediate horizon that bounds them.
The faith that the Lord Jesus
inculcated creates a fuller vision, one that has as its horizon, the eternal
plan of God our Father. This disposition of history according to the hidden,
but very active will of God, is a constant reference
that is to guide us as it was the directing force that impelled Jesus himself
in his mission. Our own times today are a period of a cultural major transition
as is widely recognized. New forces are organizing a culture that is
increasingly world-wide in its extent and driven by a technology that is
immediate in its impact and limited in its vision to material well being. In
this environment, then, the words of Jesus we have just heard assume a fresh
urgency: “Be alert, stay on your guard” for even now God’s Spirit is at work.
Make good use of what is given you in this Eucharist that you enter into the
plan of God, redeeming the time, through obedience to the Gospel of his Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. &
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