Memorial of Saints John de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, Priests, and Companions, Martyrs

 Lectionary 470

Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law,
though testified to by the law and the prophets,
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ
for all who believe.

Regardless of their religious beliefs, people always believe their gods are somehow engaged in their lives. 

I've been reading Homer's Iliad lately -- it's there among my bedside pile of books -- and I am amused by Homer's depiction of the Greek deities. They regard their human devotees affectionately, like pets. They want to see Achilles and Hector and Helen content and happy. And they want them to win against their rivals, especially when the human rivals are sponsored by other patron gods. But they really don't care because, whether the humans win or lose, live or die, the gods live immortally. I suppose other nations expect the same indifferent paternalism of their deities. 

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- whom we know as the Father of Jesus -- clearly has a deeper investment in us. And yet there is, especially in the Old Testament, that suspicion of soaring indifference. The LORD is in his heavens. He cares about his people, and rescues them from Egypt and Babylon, and miraculously spares Jerusalem from the Assyrian horde. 

But when he delivers them from Babylon, it is for the sake of his own name. The LORD will not have his name besmirched among the nations by his people's humiliation. In fact, he intends to elevate their name and their reputation to the heights of heaven, so that all nations will come to worship him. That will be for their own benefit, as well as his. 

Their redemption, in other words, has little to do with their worth or merit. "It is because God loves you!" And so we hear Saint Paul insist: 

Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law...

Our response, when we are discovered in sin, should be regret, remorse, and the intention to do penance. But, more importantly, it should be gratitude for the mercy which has convicted us of sin. And we should sing exultant songs of God's goodness. How good is the incomparably good God to his sinful people! When we read the 26 verses of Psalm 136, which recounts God's creating and redeeming works, we sing out 26 times, "...for his mercy endures forever!"   

Romans ponders God's engagement with humans in the person of Jesus, the only begotten Son of God. Christians see that God himself has abandoned the luxury, security, and splendid isolation of heaven to live, suffer, and die with us. In the passion and death of Jesus, we have watched God throw in his lot with us. He dares to go with us, and pays a ransom which is more than God can afford! 

This is incomprehensible. This we would not and could not believe if it were not revealed to us. But we have seen it and must believe it. 

If our sins are forgiven and our integrity as human beings restored, all credit must go to

"...the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe."

God only requires of us that we believe. Paul's Epistle to the Romans insists upon these twin doctrines of God's righteousness and our response in faith. So are we faithful? 

Any man can claim to be a faithful husband, but only the man who proves his fidelity to his wife and children by continual sacrifices of time and energy as he places their needs and desires above his own deserves the name of husband and father. Likewise the so-called faithful must act with complete integrity. Faith which lacks fidelity is not faith; it's a pharisaic sham. 

And so, to wrap up, God's sovereign generosity soars high above our lame, unworthy response. Our merit is never satisfactory; our integrity, never stainless. But God, to prove his worth in the presence of our crucified Lord, has redeemed him and us.