Subj: ROMANS 13:11-14: SUNDAY'S 2ND READING FOR REFLECTION
Date: 11/28/98 1:39:39 AM Pacific Standard Time
From: mtuazon@ix.netcom.com (Manuel Tuazon)
Reply-to: early-word@cin.org
To: early-word@cin.org
[Note: The scheduled 1st Reading for today, Isaiah 2:1-5, is taken from
the Old Testament. The "Navarre Bible: Texts and Commentaries" is
currently available in the New Testament only. Therefore, only today's
2nd Reading, Gospel and their related commentaries are being posted.]
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
For: Sunday, November 29, 1998
1st Sunday of Advent
From: Romans 13:11-14
Love, the Fulfilling of the Law (Continuation)
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[11] Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for
you to wake up from sleep. Salvation is nearer to us now than we first
believed; [12] the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then
cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; [13] let
us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in revelling and
drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling
and jealousy. [14] But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no
provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
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Commentary:
11-14. The Church uses this inspired text in the liturgy of Advent to
help us prepare for the coming of the Lord. Christ came into the world
by his Incarnation; he also comes to souls through grace; and at the
end of time he will come as Judge. Rising like the sun, he dispelled
the darkness when he came into the world, and he continues to dispel
whatever darkness remains in souls the more he obtains mastery over the
hearts of men.
The Christians needs to make an effort to stay awake: "There is a kind
of sleep proper to the soul, and another proper to the body," St.
Augustine tells us. "The sleep of the soul consists in forgetting
about God [...], whereas the soul who has stayed awake knows who its
maker is [...]. But, just as he who sleeps [...], although the sun has
already risen and the day is already hot, thinks it is still night,
because he is not awake to see the new-born day, so there are some
people who, even though Christ is here and the truth is being preached,
are still asleep as far as their soul is concerned [...]. Your life,
your behavior, should be awake in Christ so that others--sleepy
pagans--can see it and the sound of your watchfulness cause them to get
up and throw their sleepiness and begin to say with you in Christ: O
God, my God, since dawn I have kept watch for you" ("Enarrationes in
Psalmos", 62, 4).
13-14. Souls who have become members of the Church through Baptism are
always in need of conversion to a new life. Sometimes God uses Sacred
Scripture to awaken people from their spiritual lethargy. In face, he
used these particular words of Scripture to move the heart of St.
Augustine and have him take the last step toward casting off the
attachments of the flesh. "I felt myself still enslaved by my
iniquities, and therefore did I groan to myself, 'How long? How long
must I continue saying Tomorrow, tomorrow? Why not now? Why not, at
one instant, make an end of all uncleanness?" [...] And behold I heard
a voice, like that of a child in the house next door, repeating in a
sing-song tone, 'Take up and read. Take up and read' [...]. I rose up
[...] and returned to where I had left the book of the Apostle; I took
it quickly into my hand, opened it and read in silence the first
passage on which my eye happened to fall." Having transcribed the
verses we are now commenting, Augustine continues: "I read no further,
nor was there any need to; for with the end of this sentence, as by a
clear and constant light infused into my heart, the darkness of all
former doubts was immediately driven away" ("Confession", VII, 12,
28-29).
14. All Christians "put on" Christ in Baptism (cf. Gal 3:27). Starting
with this initial configuration to Christ, they are steadily
transformed into him by frequent reception of the sacraments,
particularly the sacrament of Penance. '"Induimini Dominum Iesum
Christum". Put on the Lord Jesus Christ', says St. Paul to the Romans.
It is the Sacrament of Penance that you and I put on Jesus Christ and
his merits" (J. Escriva, "The Way", 310).
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentary
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland. Printed in Hungary.
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