2nd Reading for the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

From: Romans 5:6-11

Reconciliation Through Christ's Sacrifice, the Basis of our Hope

[6] While we were yet helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. [7] Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man--though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. [8] But God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. [9] Since, therefore, we are now justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. [10] For, if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. [11] Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation.
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Commentary:

6-11. The friendship which reigned in Paradise between God and man was followed by the enmity created by Adam's sin. By promising a future redeemer, God once more offered mankind His friendship. The scale of God's love for us can be seen in the "reconciliation" which the Apostle speaks about, which took place on the Cross, when Christ did away with this enmity, making our peace with God and reconciling us to Him (cf. Ephesians 2:15-16).

The petition in the Our Father, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us", is an invitation to imitate the way God treats us, be- cause by loving our enemies "there shines forth in us some likeness to God our Father, who, by the death of His Son, ransomed from everlasting perdition and reconciled to Himself the human race, which before was most unfriendly and hostile to Him" ("St. Pius V Catechism", IV, 14, 19).
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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.