Great (Un)Expectations
August 16, 2023
Fr. John Riccardo
“Brothers and sisters: I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I glory in my ministry in order to make my race jealous and thus save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
“For 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”
Romans 11:13-15, 29-32
Years ago, I was listening to a priest mentor of mine teaching a class on Paul. He was quoting one of the Fathers of the Church — Jerome, I think — who had been translating some passage of Paul from Greek into Latin. At one point, utterly frustrated by Paul’s style and language, he hurled the Greek manuscript across the cave in frustration. As he did so, he shouted, “Paul! You don’t want to be understood!”
That anecdote comes very much to mind as we ponder this text from Romans. As was mentioned here last week, Romans 9-11 are very dense chapters, and prone to misunderstanding. No wonder we only get a few snippets in the Lectionary at Mass and no wonder it’s rarely preached on. There is, to be sure, much to be pondered here and much to mine in study and prayer.
Some time ago, I came across an analogy that has proved immensely helpful for me in putting together the big story that is salvation history, and the crucial, all-important, irrevocable role of the Jewish people in it. The analogy goes like this: God created the human race in His image and likeness; to worship and live in communion with Him; to love one another; and to care for creation. But the human race got derailed by the deception of the enemy. This enemy tempted our first parents to doubt God’s goodness and love. We thereby unknowingly sold ourselves into slavery to the indomitable powers of Sin and Death and there is no way — on our own — to escape their grip. As a result, the analogy goes, it was as if the human project, like an out of control car, drove into a deep ditch and was utterly unable to get out on its own. To rescue the human project, God chose the Jewish people to be the means by which the car could get out of the ditch, something like a divine “tow truck,” if you will.
The problem was that since the Jewish people were part of the original human project it turns out they were in “the ditch” too, hopelessly bound by Sin and Death. The “tow truck” also needed to be rescued. In such a hopeless predicament, how could humanity ever be rescued?
The rescue could only happen through God’s Son, the one through whom and for whom all things exist (cf. Col 1:16-17); who freed us from our sins (cf. Rev 1:5); abolished death (cf. 2 Tim 1:10); bound the strong man, our ancient enemy (cf. Mk 3:27); and made us into a kingdom and priests for God our Father (cf. Rev 1:6). In Jesus, the entire human race — Jew and Gentile — has been rescued from the dominion and rule of darkness and brought into the Kingdom of God (cf. Col 1:13).
St. Paul was so deeply immersed in the Scriptures, what we now call the Old Testament but for him was the only Scripture there was, that he knew well this prophecy in Isaiah:
“Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?
For thus says the Lord:
‘Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued,
for I will contend with those who contend with you…Then all flesh shall know
that I am the Lord your Savior, and your Redeemer [Hebrew: goel], the Mighty One of Jacob’” (49:24-26).
Encountering the risen Lord on the road to Damascus, Paul against all expectations, came to realize that Jesus is this Redeemer, this Goel. Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, the Son of David, of the stock of Israel, is not, then, the founder of some new religion, as is often wrongly supposed. Rather, for Paul, Jesus is the shocking fulfillment of all that God had promised both the Jewish people and the whole world. In Jesus, God has had mercy on all (cf. Rom 11:32), for His desire is that all be saved (cf. 1 Tim 2:4).
Let us thank the Lord this week for His wondrous plan of salvation, His extraordinary patience with both our race and ourselves, and pray for the grace to trust Him ever more deeply.