"Justified Freely by His Grace" (Romans 3: 22)

In today's first reading, Romans 3: 21-30, we are reminded that the righteousness of God is a reality for all who believe in Jesus Christ, that is, it is manifested "apart from the law and the prophets," though the law and God's prophets give testimony to it.  There is no distinction, St. Paul reminds us, between those who serve and know God's righteousness through the law and those who serve God "through faith in Jesus Christ..., as well as through observance the of the law. "[A]ll have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God."  And all "are  justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, who God set forth as an expiation, through faith, by his Blood, to prove his righteousness because of the forgiveness of sins...."   To this very day God, those who believe in Jesus Christ are made righteous and justified by Jesus' pouring out every drop of His blood for the redemption of all peoples.

I invite those reading this blog and myself, as well,  to apply St. Paul's message to ourselves personally, hearing St. Paul say to each of us:  Dorothy Ann (Insert your name)        , though you have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God, you "are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus, who God set forth as an expiation  [of your sins] through [your faith] by his Blood, to prove his righteousness because of the forgiveness of [your] sins."  Jesus, the Righteous One, has justified you and restored "the glory of God" in you, Dorothy Ann (insert your name),  by shedding every drop of His Blood, beginning with His circumcision, His sweat turning into drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, His scourging, His crowning with thorns, His loss of blood on the way to Calvary, nails being driven through His hands and feet, and His side being pierced on the cross.

You cannot, Dorothy Ann (insert your name),  boast of saving yourself--you are saved only through Christ Jesus' obedience to the point of death. St. Paul states: "What occasion is there...for boasting? It is ruled out.  On what principle, that of works? No, rather on the principle of faith....God is one and will justify  the circumcised on the basis of faith (the Jews)  and the uncircumcised (the Gentiles) through faith."  "There is no distinction."  The glory of God is restored in all peoples--every Jew and every Gentile--without any exceptions through the Righteous One, Jesus Christ!

Jesus' Attitude toward the Law

In today’s Gospel, Mt. 5: 17-19, Jesus says to us: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.”  The law of God—God’s covenant-- we are told in Heb. 10: 16—is written on our hearts: “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.”  There are times when we need clear directions and need to make firm decisions, neither wavering one way or the next, neither flip flopping from one side to the other.  There is no way that Jesus is going to take that clarity away from us.  The Holy Family carried out the law of Moses in its smallest of details.  And Jesus warns us not to teach our children to disregard the law under any circumstances, saying in this same Gospel: “…[W]hoever  breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”

 Besides respecting the “smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter…[of] the law,” Jesus also teaches us to live by the Spirit of the law, as in the case recorded in Mt. 12: 1:  “…Jesus went through the cornfields one Sabbath day. His disciples were hungry and began to pick ears of corn and eat them. The Pharisees noticed it and said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing something that is forbidden on the Sabbath’….If you understood the meaning of the words Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the blameless.”

There are times when we, too, face the dilemma Jesus and his disciples faced on that particular Sabbath, choosing mercy over a sacrifice the law required.  At other times we may be challenged to obey even the smallest segment of a law that others are pressuring us to disregard for pleasure sake or because “it is only a venial sin,” or, in other words, we may have dismissed a necessary law as insignificant because we wanted to do whatever we were  intent on doing for our own pleasure and “no law is going to stop us.” Still at other times we may have been challenged to let go of rigid observances in order to show mercy and compassion toward ourselves and/or others?

Am I aware of my attitude toward law? Am I teaching others to disrespect law? Or do I show a respect for laws that are there to protect us from danger, spiritual or otherwise?