Sign in or 
Share this
AUG. 3
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
| Romans 8: 35, 37 - 39 | |
| 35 | Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? |
Pelagius
After so many and such splendid benefits or promises, what affliction could be so heavy that it tears us away from love for Christ? And in saying 'us' he is saying that all should be the sort of Christians that even perils cannot separate from Christ. At the time of writing, however, the Jews wanted to separate them from Christ in order to recall them to the observance of the law.
| 37 | No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. |
Theodoret of Cyrus
Setting the love for us by the God of all over against all these things, we prove superior to the troubles. We consider it the height of absurdity, in fact, that while Christ the Lord accepted death on behalf of sinners, we do not undergo execution for him with great willingness.
| 38 | For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, |
St. Thomas Aquinas
First he mentions things that exist in man, saying: I am sure that neither death, which is the first among things we fear, nor life, which is first among things we desire, can separate us from the love of God: "If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord" (Rom 14:8).
Then he mentions things outside of man. Among these are, first, spiritual creatures; hence he says: nor angels, i.e., the lower ones assigned to guard individual men: "He will give his angels charge of thee" (Ps 91:11). Nor principalities, i.e., those assigned to guard nations: "Now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I am through with him, the prince of Greece will come. And there is none who contends by my side against these except Michael" (Dan 10:20).
Hence he says: nor things present, whether they cause pain or pleasure: "We look not to the things that are seen" (2 Cor 4:18). Then he adds: nor things to come. Whether we fear them or desire them, they cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Hence it says in Ac (21:13): "For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."
He adds: nor powers, which is the highest order of ministering angels: "The powers of heaven will be shaken" (Lk 21:26).
| 39 | nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. |
Pelagius
He named almost every creature, and was not satisfied with this list unless he added that even if there were another creature, it too could not separate us.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Hence he says: nor height, from which someone might threaten to cast me headlong, as in Lk (4:29): "They led Jesus to the brow of the hill, that they might throw him down headlong"; nor depth, in which someone might submerge me: "I sink in deep mire" (Ps 69:2). These three things can also be referred to the ways a person could turn a man away from God: in one way by the force of power: but as it says in 1 Sam (2:2): "No one is strong as our God." Secondly, by the lofty height of one’s authority; but "God is the highest of the kings of the earth" (Ps. 89:27). Thirdly, by the depth of one’s wisdom; but God’s knowledge is deeper: "Deeper than Sheol -- what can you know?" (Jb 11:8). These two, height and depth, can be referred to adversity and prosperity, according to 2 Cor (6:7): "With the weapons of justice for the right and for the left." With regard to creatures which do not exist but could, he says: nor anything else in all creation. According to Chrysostom, he says this about the things that are not, as though all things that are do not suffice, but he must so to speak challenge to battle even the things that are not. None of them, he says, will be able to separate us from the love of God: "Love never falls away" (1 Cor 13:8). This love of God is in Christ Jesus our Lord, because it was given to us through him, inasmuch as he gave it to us through the Holy Spirit: "I have come to cast fire on the earth and what will I but that it be kindled" (Lk 12:49).
JohnLitteral |
Latest page update: made by JohnLitteral
, Jul 27 2008, 10:07 PM EDT
(about this update
About This Update
Edited by JohnLitteral
view changes - complete history) |
|
Keyword tags:
None
More Info: links to this page
|
There are no threads for this page.
Be the first to start a new thread.
