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I really needed this week’s second reading right now. The eighth chapter of Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans is one of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible because of how reassuring it is. And we can all use a little reassurance right now.

This week’s second reading brings our attention to the battle that rages in each of our hearts, the battle between light and darkness. It’s important to note that the war has ended and Jesus has won. But just like in any war, battles often continue after the ceasefire. So it is in our hearts.

Who would you die for? Would you die for someone who doesn’t care about you, doesn’t acknowledge you, someone who doesn’t even like you or may even hate you? Would you not simply tolerate dying for them but actively choose it? Now that we’re into the heart of Lent, the Holy Spirit opens the heart of God to us in our second reading.

How is your Lent going so far? It’s early on, so chances are the novelty hasn’t quite worn off yet. In a few weeks, the Lenten lull will set in, and we’ll all find ourselves asking why we picked this particular Lenten discipline. To prepare us for that inevitable moment, the Holy Spirit has a message for us today: Bear your share of hardship for the Gospel with the strength that comes from the Lord.

Now that we are in the season of Lent, you might notice that the connections between the readings have changed. Throughout Ordinary Time, we work sequentially through one specific Gospel, with the First Reading being an Old Testament passage that is in harmony with or directly points toward that Gospel. The Second Reading comes from a sequential reading of New Testament epistle. Now that we are in Lent, The Church gives us three readings designed to help instruct catechumens, those who are entering the Church. The First Readings will highlight major events throughout salvation history. The Gospels are going to focus on events in the life of Jesus that are important for initiation into the Church. The Second Readings will form a bridge between the two by focusing on the great Lenten themes of sin and forgiveness, and those will be the focus of this column throughout Lent.

With Ash Wednesday coming up this week, today’s second reading is the last time we will read sequentially from 1 Corinthians. When Ordinary Time resumes on June 21, we will begin reading from Romans. Since we’ve spent that last six weeks reading 1 Corinthians, it would be worthwhile to read the rest of the letter on your own.

Just how mature are you really? I don’t mean maturity in the sense of how well you handle conflict or difficulties. In today’s second reading, the Holy Spirit is making a very important point about our spiritual maturity.

Today, we jump back into our sequential reading of the first several chapters of 1 Corinthians. Two weeks ago, when we last read for this letter, the Holy Spirit was reminding us of the cross of Christ and how foolish it looks to many people. Today, he picks up with that same point.

The second readings take a brief break from 1 Corinthians this week for a reading from Hebrews as we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation. This feast has become particularly close to my heart in the past several years. As my wife and I wrestle with raising a young family and with trying to pass on a living faith to them, this feast is a welcome glimpse into the Holy Family’s own religious practices. The struggles and the glorious moments are intertwined in this event from Jesus’ family life as they are in all our families’ lives.

Last week we saw that there were some serious divisions in the Church in Corinth in the 50’s A.D. Those divisions are on full display in today’s second reading. Many Corinthians has lost sight of the importance of Jesus Christ and of the Gospel and were instead focused on their favorite minister of the Gospel. Two of the biggest problems in Corinth were pride and selfishness, which always cause division. Sounds a little like our Church and our nation today, doesn’t it?

Now that Ordinary Time has begun, we’ll be spending from now until Lent begins in the first four chapters of Saint Paul’s First Letter for the Corinthians. To allow the Holy Spirit to speak more clearly to us through these readings, let’s get some context of this letter. Imagine a Church divided, filled with careless liturgy, struggling to find its way in a culture hostile to it, a culture of division and lawsuits that misunderstands of marriage and sexuality. Imagine a Church unsure of how it should interact with the wider culture. Is this the Catholic Church of today or the Catholic Church in Corinth in the 50’s A.D.? It could describe both equally well.

For Epiphany, we reflected on the universal scope of Jesus' mission through the figures of the Magi. These figures in our Nativity scenes often are depicted as European, Asian, and African to emphasize that Jesus came for all people. This week, the Holy Spirit is emphasizing the same point in our second reading: “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.” Anyone from anywhere can follow Jesus’ example, receive Baptism, and join God’s family.

On this Feast of Epiphany, Saint Paul reminds us of his own epiphany: that Jesus Christ is Messiah and Lord and that his promises are for everyone. This universal scope of Jesus’s mission is often lost on us. We would find it appalling if Jesus came only for one ethnicity. But we also can’t entirely fault the Chosen People of the Bible. There are two parallel strands of thought running throughout the Old Testament that finally converge with Jesus.

In the first few centuries of the Church, Christians developed a language for describing the incredible event of the Incarnation. What does it mean that God became a man? In 451, the Council of Ephesus described this mystery in terms of Mary, calling her theotokos, the God-bearer, the Mother of God. Since at least the thirteenth century, January 1 has been a celebration of Mary’s maternity, and since 1960 we have called this day the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.

Christmas is not simply a necessary first step in the salvation transaction. It’s not even primarily a nostalgic story about how humble God is and all the things he’s willing to do for us. We cannot simply approach Christmas as an epic tale of long ago adventures somewhere across the ocean, because Christmas is not about the past. It’s about you, right now. 

This week’s second reading is the introductory preamble to Saint Paul’s great letter to the Romans. This letter is unique among his letters in a few related ways. He is not writing to address the problems or questions of a specific community. Rather, Saint Paul is writing to a community he has not visited before in order to lay out the basics of his message before he gets there. Because of these circumstances, Romans can be said to be Saint Paul’s systematic presentation of what it means to be a Christian. It is well worth taking the time to read all 16 chapters of Romans this week.

This week’s second reading makes two references to the coming of the Lord. The word “coming” in James’ original Greek is parousia, an important term for the Early Church meaning “coming” or “presence.” It has a very similar meaning to the Latin-based “Advent,” meaning “coming” or “arrival.” In this particular reading at this particular time of year, the Holy Spirit is giving us a wide-ranging play on words.

Today, the Bible gets personal. The Holy Spirit is informing us that “whatever was written previously was written for our instruction.” Worded another way, whatever the Holy Spirit inspired the authors of the Bible to write, he inspired them so that he could speak to you and to me.

Happy Liturgical New Year! At the outset of this new year, the Holy Spirit just issued a wake-up call in today’s second reading. This Advent Season, we need to wake up from our spiritual lethargy.