Gained by Christ, redemption abolishes sin and at the same time insures salvation unto eternal life. This is what grounds our hope. Now Paul comes to the confrontation— begun in this Sunday’s text-between Christ’s work and Adam’s.
“…..just as sin came into the world through one man, (Adam) and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned………For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many.” ie. (Death came into the world through Adam, and life through Christ who conquered death) This is a brief reminder of the original fall and its consequences (see Gen 2;1-17). How is this possible? How can we explain the involvement of all in death, the effect of Adam’s sin? What is the connection between the sins that all commit and Adam’s What does the word “sin” mean when there is no law to sanction it? These questions, unavoidable when we read what Paul wrote, are not answered in the text. The apostle does not justify his statements; he does not explain them. If, through literal exegetes, we sought to elucidate the thought that the author himself did not well define, we would come to dead ends, or at least conclusions too divergent to be useful.
In a hurry to get to the effects of redemption through Christ, he is content, in his impetuosity, to allude to the disastrous effects of Adam’s sin, the prototype of all sins.
(It is through Adam’s disobedience to God in the Garden of Eden that sin entered the world, and through it the birth of Original Sin, inherited at birth by all mankind. It is also this disobedience which lost him and mankind paradise.) Without labouring the point, Paul says enough to emphasise that “the gift is not like the transgression.” Not only does Christ repair the catastrophic state that had its origin in Adam, he initiates a new, an incomparably better state. Through the sin of one “the many died.” How “much more did the grace of God and the precious gift of the one person Jesus Christ overflow for many.” Let us turn our eyes toward him. In him we find our hope; through him the universe has become “a new creation” into which faith and baptism integrate us. We are redeemed — reconciled to the Father, and through baptism original sin is washed away, and paradise and eternal life are restored to us.
We now turn to the Discourse on the Mission in Matthew’s Gospel which reaches far and wide; it is directed, beyond time, to all who place and will place themselves at the service of Christ and the Gospel. Those sent by the Lord must not let themselves grow fearful when faced with the contradictions, persecutions, and violent reactions that their ministry is bound to elicit. No doubt the Gospel is good news, but it also radically calls into question a world built without recognition of God and upon values foreign or even contrary to his law. Confrontation is unavoidable. A Gospel that bothers no-one and questions nothing is no longer the Gospel. But the impact of the good news is not always apparent—far from it. Christians very often seem to fight a losing battle. Being a little flock, they are submerged by the surrounding world, which sees them as despised and mocked dreamers, as dangerous challengers to be marginalised or suppressed. Much the same as Jeremiah in the First Reading. If they yield to fear, chances are the doubt will take over. “Therefore, do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.” “Take courage, I have conquered the world”. You too will share in this victory, through your faith.
In any case, why fear human beings? Yes, they can kill the body, but not the soul, that is deepest in humankind. It is well known and can often be verified that the worst aggressions against the body do not always succeed in reaching a persons’ inner core, what makes their greatness and dignity. But this is not what Christ is speaking of, he who on the cross will remain, to his last breath, a man whose body, not soul, was slain. What he does is to contrast the fear of human beings with the fear of God, which has nothing in common with fear, even religious fear. Fear of God is consciousness of the transcendence and power of God, but also of his being the supreme good. It causes us finally to take seriously God’s love and the real stakes of life. “The love which God pours into our hearts and which allows us to love him in return, banishes fear. Only a right and good trembling is left, caused no longer by fear but by fervour.”
Only one thing should be feared — to be lost, “to perish in Gehenna,” soul and body, for having cut oneself off from God’s love. This latter sanction is not within the power of human beings, who can kill only the body. “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?…..No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:35; 37-39)
And finally, “do not be afraid” because you are precious to God. This Divine solicitude is called providence. It extends to the least of creatures and even more to those who call God “Our Father.” They have been redeemed by the blood of Christ; God cannot let them perish. Now, freed from fear, placing their trust in God, the disciples and the messengers of the Gospel must proclaim from the housetops the good news that has been revealed to them, and boldly bear public witness to the one who chose them and whom they choose. To thus profess one’s faith in words and actions, courage, and sometimes even heroism, is needed. But Christ is present, whose Spirit is given so that we may speak and act without fear.
A mysterious and intimate solidarity exists between Jesus and the disciples. Those who make the Lord’s cause their own will see him testify on their behalf on Judgement Day. At that most dreadful moment, they will hear, one last time “Do not be afraid.”
The unconquerable strength of all — the prophet, the apostle, the Christian, the Church — is a gift from Almighty God, who never abandons his own, although appearances sometimes seem to the contrary. This strength is proportionate to the trust that believers place in the one whose cause they espoused. When the tempest is at its worst, such trust manifests itself in praise: “Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked! Christians indeed know the grace of Christ has no common measure with sin; it has initiated a new world freed from the death dealing sin.
Therefore, it is with full assurance that they welcome and exercise their mission as witnesses to Christ and heralds of the good news. Joyful and proud to share with others the joy and trust that animate them, they guard against any form of arrogance or presumption, because they know that their strength is not their own. This is what we are called to do as Christ’s disciples in the world today.
“Victorious love shouts to the four winds. You who follow Jesus, do not fear what leads to death, rather, fear to yield to fear. The joy of our Lord is our rampart. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? Though an army encamps against me, my heart will not fear. I shall not die, but live, declaring the works of the Lord.”
