Memorial of Saint Charles Borromeo, Bishop

Lectionary: 485

The gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. 

Just as you once disobeyed God 

but have now received mercy 

because of their disobedience, 

so they have now disobeyed in order that, 

by virtue of the mercy shown to you, 

they too may now receive mercy. 

For God delivered all to disobedience, 

that he might have mercy upon all. 

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! 

How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!

Saint Paul was acutely aware of the choice he offered whenever he announced the Gospel to gentiles. They should accept the Jewish Messiah as their Lord and Savior and be baptized. He offered only take it or leave it, and if they left it they chose a hopeless path to perdition.

He was not aware of choices. He could not offer a smorgasbord of different religions like the professor of college comparative religion. He had never faced the bewildering array of consumer choices that we take for granted when we go shopping.

Freedom was not the right to choose among many vaguely different options -- Cheerios, Wheaties, or Post Raisin Bran.  He could not offer reversible decisions of no consequence. He offered Life and Good, as opposed to death and evil. Freedom is the narrow way the Lord offers.

The gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.There was no turning back. God will neither abandon nor forget you! Neither can you abandon the choice you have made for God. 

The Apostle's heart was deeply disturbed that the Jewish nation had not accepted the Gospel. The young zealot had supposed they must come over soon. His family, friends, mentors, and former colleagues -- they must surely see the light and discover faith in Jesus!

In time his disappointment resolved into a conviction that God's judgments are inscrutable and his way, unsearchable. If the hard shell of his Pharisaic heart had been broken, it revealed a seed that germinated, grew and flourished for gentile nations. The whole world would know the grace, freedom, and glory of Jesus Christ.

For God delivered all to disobedience,that he might have mercy upon all.

Twenty centuries later, that take-it-or-leave-it choice has not changed, but there has been one great change since that first century: we live a long time. "Fifty is the new thirty; seventy is the new forty." Born in the twenty-first century, most North Americans and Europeans can expect to live in many different places, pursue several different careers, marry multiple spouses, and work closely with thousands of people in the course of a long, healthy life. If they choose to have children, they can expect the children to move far away and forget them, But many prefer pets; they're more reliable, more disposable and require less sacrifice. No choice is irrevocable. Life in this brave new world is survival into the next phase, like a Nintendo game with ever-increasing difficulty. Flourishing is mastering and conquering. Community and family are encumbrances, parasitic attachments which must be shed to attain one's freedom.

They don't imagine a God who guides their lives through many different phases; much less a Lord of History with a master plan of salvation. The Church which Saint Paul received and promoted finds its life in the enduring Word of God, an eternal covenant that laughs at any suggestion that we have no further need for God. We have seen a lot of history, and the rise and fall of many nations. Grafted into Abraham's people by baptism, we watch as the Lord guides us through today's complexity into eternal life.