If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
The tenth chapter of Saint Paul's Letter to the Romans is preoccupied with his distress and disappointment that so few Jews had come to believe in Jesus. He seemed to have forgotten his initial resistance to the Gospel, and his severe, if not violent, persecution of those who followed the Way.
The enigma of how Catholics and the innumerable sects of Christianity should relate to the Jews (who are also divided by countless controversies, interpretations, and traditions) remains to this day. Paul resolved it in his own mind only with a hope that the Jews might finally come over to Christ after all of the gentiles have done so.
But the question also aroused many inspirational ideas in the Apostle's mind; among them, his reassuring doctrine,
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lordand believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
The Gospel concerns not only the salvation of the whole world, it's also about your particular standing before God. While everyone should feel some responsibility for the welfare of the Earth and all its peoples, there is also the reassurance that, "his eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches over me. "
The older I get the more I realize how little impact I've had; the world is not much improved for my having been here; and it might just possibly be worse. A friend once told me, "When I was young I was going to change the world. And then I tried to change everyone around me. And now I realize I can only change myself."
I told her, "You're almost there. I have given up on changing myself." As Charlotte Eliott wrote in 1835,
Just as I am - without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
-O Lamb of God, I come!
Paul would not live to see the conversion of the Jews. Nor will you and I. Nor will we see Protestants and Catholics reunited; Jews and Arabs link arms to sing Kumbaya, or the easing of the Climate Crisis.
Our young heirs might ask if we've made any difference at all. Fortunately, we'll not have to answer to them.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.