Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans is the longest epistle in the New Testament and one of the most theologically important and illuminating documents in the entire Bible. Our second readings have been occupied with this book for several months, and this week’s reading is the final section we will read during Mass, though the letter itself goes on for another two and a half chapters.
How does Holy Mother Church end our reading of this great work of God-breathed scripture? She reminds us that “we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8). As a Christian, that is our fundamental identity. Before I am a Director of Faith Formation, I am his. Before I am a husband and a father, I am his. Before I am a son, a brother, a friend, a neighbor, I am his. I am his not as property but as family.
The three verses of this second reading come in the larger context of Saint Paul reminding his Roman readers not to pass judgement on each other. Our fundamental identity is a unified family of God, despite our real and valuable diversity, which cannot be ignored either. Whether you are male or female, black or white, Democrat or Republican, from Ambridge, Baden, Conway, or Franklin Park, whether you live or you die, you are the Lord’s precious child.
That is the Holy Spirit’s great crescendo in Romans. None of us deserves the salvation that God offers us. While we were still sinners in open rebellion against God, he sent Jesus to die for us. He loves us when we are unlovable. He sends his spirit to live in our bodies as in a temple and to intercede for us with inexplicable groanings. He says that nothing can separate us from his love, and he shows us that we can begin to understand his workings by searching his scriptures. And then he points us to the people around us and challenges us to do what he did for us to them.
The challenges ring loudly and clearly in this crescendo. We are the Lord’s. We need to love the unlovable, even while they remain unlovable. We need to intercede for others with the Spirit’s groanings. We need not to let anything stand in the way of loving others as Jesus did. We need to know the inspired scriptures so we can inspire the world around us. We are his, and so we need to be his.