Mystical Word: 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
1 Kings 3:5, 7-12 | Romans 8:28-30 | Matthew 13:44-52
On Romans 8:28-30
One of the major reasons that St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans holds such a fascination is that he articulates an amazing doctrine, namely, justification. We find this teaching on justification referred to in today’s second reading: “those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:30). Few other doctrines have caused such controversy. Justification by faith became a rallying cry for the protestant reformation when Martin Luther declared “by faith alone” and opposing all works.
Justification is a term from the legal and judicial world. Perhaps we should begin to understand this term in that way? Imagine being charged with a criminal offense and being in a courtroom before a judge. The prosecutor has presented a damning case. You are guilty; there is no denying it. All you can do is fearfully await the sentence from the judge. The judge asks you to rise. You feel like your life is over; you feel submerged in your mistakes, shame, and guilt. Then, the judge announces a full acquittal! The judge says you are free to go and clear of all charges!
This is what justification means. It is the utter dismissal of charges, even a refusal to hear the case. What is the case? It is human sin: “all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But God dismisses the charges against us out of love for us. St. Paul announces with glee and glory the unfathomable mercy of God that tenderly embraces us and is one with us regardless of our sin, our selfishness, or any correct moral behavior.
Justification is a legal term by which St. Paul communicates the profligate mercy of God and the inherent graced nature of the human being. For justification means we are always already one with God. It is free! God’s love is utterly given, gratuitously given in Jesus Christ. In Greek, grace is CHARIS, and it means gracious gift.
Justification and righteousness are one and the same. We recall how the main theme of Romans is the Righteousness that is God: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: for Jew first, and then Greek. For in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The one who is righteous by faith will live’” (Romans 1:16-17). The “righteousness of God” is better translated as “God’s own righteousness.” Righteousness here is God being faithful to being God – it is just God being God and acting as God acts, namely, with gratuitousness: God’s love is wildly free, a gift beyond all measure and all being. We cannot fathom the incomprehensible love of God for us. Out of love, God wants everyone to share the divine life.
To justify also means to make righteous – to make us share in the righteousness of God.
“God alone” means letting God be our holiness rather than trying to be perfect. It means our main practice is daily silent prayer rather than self-cultivated virtues. St. Paul is clear: we cannot make ourselves holy. Perfect morality does not make us one with God.
“All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24). This is the whole argument of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans. By faith we access the gratuitous grace of God revealed in Jesus Crucified and through the Holy Spirit. The Gospel specializes in failure! The Gospel specializes in turning failures into divine bliss by way of the death and resurrection of Jesus, more specifically by faith in God working through pure prayer.
Franciscan spiritual teacher Richard Rohr, speaking of St. Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith, says it means that “correct moral behavior does not create union with God.” We only need to trust in God’s mercy; we only need to pray. There is no ladder the ego can climb to reach God, no laws of spiritual success that the self can apply. There is only faith, surrender to God and letting God be God, realizing God is my reality, identity, and life – all by God’s gift.
“For we consider that a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:28). We are justified by faith: we discover our oneness with God – divine love – when we trust in God and
move beyond our minds. We have God here and now, within us and one with us. There is no behavior we need to make moral, no commandment we need to obey to make God one with us or love us. Then, what about the law?
St. Paul argues that God’s gratuitous love transcends the law even though the prophets and the Torah affirm the law. Brendan Byrne writes of St. Paul’s “depiction of the futility, in ethical terms, of simply imposing the law (of Moses) or any external legal obligation on persons where the fundamental internal problem remains unresolved. The problem with the law, good and holy though it be in itself…is that it does not get ‘inside’ human beings and deal with the real issue: the radical selfishness and desire for absolute autonomy that Paul, in biblical speak, dubs ‘flesh.’” The law shows us how we “all have sinned” but cannot do anything about it. Rather, God justifies us by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which we access by faith.
Rather than meticulous observance of the law, one only has to entrust life to God and the live with God as God, experiencing divine love means love follows in one’s behavior. Though not discounting the law, Paul’s experience of justification by faith transcends the law. There is no Absolute but God: neither law, nor morality, nor ritual can take the place of transformational faith. Today, we can translate “justification by faith” as mysticism before morality. Leading with prayer – lots of time for interior silence – then understanding morality as a consequence of prayer and faith. And even then, morality does not mean perfectionism regarding behavior.
Justification could also be understood as alignment, which would mean aligning my life with God’s love for us or letting our guard down to be loved by God. Alignment with divine love overflows into life: “We know that all things work for good for those who love God” (Romans 8:28). Even our mistakes work for our good! Mistakes are fuel for transformation, if we acknowledge them and learn from them. The ego only ever resists grace; experiences of resistance create suffering and that can fuel an awakening to divine grace. There is no reason to fear making mistakes: God does not condemn us but loves us beyond our wildest dreams. God just wants our surrender, to let God justify us.