Sunday, July 27, 2008AD
17th Sunday in Greentime
Meet St Paul – Part 8:
St Paul continues to share his Gospel with the Christian house churches in Roma in the mid-fifties of the first century of the New Testament (and with our house church, para-oikia, (it rhymes with karaoke) in Armonk as well, little did he know)! He speaks today, “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to God’s purpose.” Most of us would say that we would like to believe his Gospel with totally, yet, it is tough. “Lord, we believe. Help our lack of faith.”
To understand his thought, it might be useful to consider an image from recent world history. The scene would be set in the post D-Day invasion of Europe by the Allies on June 6, 1944. Most believed that WW2 would eventually now be won by the Allies. Still, V-E Day, May 8, 1945 and V-J day, August 15, 1945 were still a year off after Normandy.
Christ Jesus had invaded the world of sin with His preemptive strike against death itself on Good Friday-Easter Sunday, c. 30AD. God’s invasion on evil had begun and yet, the total victory was (has not) been felt. We know that God triumphs over evil; still, sometimes, the bitterness continues. A German (!!!) theologian, Christian Bekker, used the D-Day analogy thirty years ago. He said that Paul’s letter to the Romans should be understood like a letter to resistance cells in Europe who were still fighting Hitler and yet, they know that time was ultimately on their side. The meeting of the house churches in Roma (and in Armonk) can be comparable to meetings of the resistance moments to the Axis in the post D-Day, pre V-J Day time framework. They were anticipating still and working for total victory. We know, even now, who the winner is, viz., Christ Jesus in the Spriit; still, we do not yet feel the effects of the total victory. We exist in interim time.
In trying to cope with the question of evil, the Hebrew Bible tradition could go no further, perhaps, than the Book of Job. Job never lost faith in God, but he came very close to cursing God for all the heartache that he felt. He asked, “We accept good things from YHWH, should we not accept evil as well?” He also stated, “YHWH, the Lord, gives and YHWH, the Lord, takes away. Blessed be the Name of YHWH!” In the end, God seems to brush off the question, “Where were you, Job, when I created the universe?” What would you do better? Job humbly submits, “You win, YHWH”.
St Paul understood reality as a Jew who believed that YHWH had answered Job’s dilemma with the death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, God’s son incarnate. He understood that just as all humanity shares in the same paradigm, each of us and all of us are created by God, are elected by God, are sinful in God’s sight and yet, are reconciled by God through the death and Resurrection of the Archetype of Creation, Christ Jesus. It is up to us to accept God’s blessed action in Christ Jesus and to live our lives in the courage and gratitude generated by our (God-given) faith in Christ Jesus’ death and Resurrection.
Then and now, to those who do not believe, Christ’s crucifixion was a scandal, a contradiction, an absurdity, a revulsion, a folly, an illogical ignominy. Yet, then as now, to those who do believe that same action (the murder of God’s Son incarnate) was at the very same time, God’s great victory over sin, death and evil. Interestingly, Mel Gibson caught the view of St Paul’s understanding of reality in the crucifixion scene in his movie, the Passion of the Christ, a few years. If someone could look at the mess that hanged upon the cross and say “My Lord and My God”, that person understood what St Paul says in today’s second reading about the Paschal Paradox of death and Resurrection, of even now, but not yet.
Yet, each of us and all of us feel the left hand of God at times when we experience the sorrows, troubles, failures, absurdities, reversals and disappointments of life. It is hard for us to see our pains working for good for those who love God.
Jesus asks us to trust Him on this one as He hangs upon the cross.
Truly, the Divine One incarnate is the Human One, with all that it entails (save sin).
St Paul asked the Roman house churches to trust the Mystery of the Cross in the mid-fifties. About ten years later, these very people were the victims of accusation of urban terrorism as the scapegoats for the Great Fire in Roma in July 64AD.
How many of the same Roman Christians found consolation in the letter
St Paul had written ten years earlier?
Enough, apparently, to include Paul’s Letter to the Romans in the Christian Bible as an ongoing source of encouragement for all of us (in Armonk and other places) when we experience negative vicissitudes during
life in Christ Jesus. 072708AD jfq
