From: Titus 2:11-14
The Incarnation, the Basis of Christian Ethics and Piety
[11] For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men, [12] training us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, [13] awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, [14] who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
______________
Commentary:
11-14. This section is almost like a hymn in praise of saving grace and God's loving kindness as manifested in Christ. The terse, sober style, with phrases piled on one another, and very few verbs, is typical of St. Paul. The duties just described (2L1-10)--of older men, women, young people and slaves--all point to Christians' having a common lifestyle, which is the fruit of grace. God is the source of that grace, and salvation its goal, and it is given to us through Jesus Christ.
Thus, divine grace manifested in the Incarnation is actively at work to redeem us; it brings salvation; it sanctifies us, enabling us to live godly lives; and it is the basis of our hope in the second coming of the Lord. All these dimensions of the action of grace summarize revealed doctrine on righteousness (justification) in Jesus Christ. Thus, in the Incarnation, God's salvific will, embracing all men, is manifested in a special way (cf. 1 Tim 2:4); in the Redemption, Christ, the only Mediator and Savior (cf. 1 Tim 2:5) obtains for us the gift of grace, whereby man becomes a sharer in the good things of salvation. Jesus is our model; by means of grace he instructs the Christian on how to control his defects and grow in virtue. The instruction we receive is not only an external one: God inwardly moves us to seek holiness (cf. Rom 5:1-5 and note). Grace also channels our hope, for Christians are motivated not only by the memory of a past event (our Lord's life on earth) but also, and especially, by the fact that Jesus is in the glory of heaven even now and that we are invited to share his inheritance (cf. 2 Pet 3:12-13).
13. "The glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ": an explicit confession of faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ, who is stated at one and at the same time (with only one article in the original Greek) to be God and Savior. This expression is the hinge on which the entire hymn turns: Jesus Christ our God is the one who came at the Incarnation, who will manifest himself fully at his second coming, and who through his work of redemption has made it possible for man to live a live pleasing to God.
This verse is reminiscent of Romans 9:5, where St. Paul wrote: "to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race according to the flesh is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed for ever. Amen."
14. The mention of Jesus Christ at the end of the previous verse leads St. Paul to summarize the doctrine of the Redemption in this lovely passage. Four essential elements in redemption are listed: Christ's self-giving; redemption from all iniquity; purification; and Christ's establishment of a people of his own dedicated to good deeds. The reference to Christ's self-giving clearly means whereby we are set free from the slavery of sin; Christ's sacrifice is the cause of the freedom of the children of God (analogously, God's action during the Exodus liberated the people of Israel). Purification, a consequence of redemption, enables a man to become part of God's own people (cf. Ezek 37-23). The expression "a people of his own" is a clear allusion to Exodus 19:5: through the covenant of Sinai God made Israel his own people, different from other nations; through the New Covenant of his blood Jesus forms his own people, the Church, which is open to all nations: "As Israel according to the flesh which wandered in the desert was already called the Church of God, so, too, the new Israel, which advances in this present era in search of a future and permanent city, is called also the Church of Christ. It is Christ indeed who has purchased it with his own blood; he has filled it with his Spirit; he has provided means adapted to its visible and social union [...]. Destined to extend to all regions of the earth, it enters into human history, though it transcends at once all times and all racial boundaries" ("Lumen Gentium", 9).
___________________________
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries 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. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
No comments:
Post a Comment