Christian life: be concerned for others
1 I beg you, dearly beloved, by the mercy of God, to give yourselves as a living and holy sacrifice pleasing to God; that is the kind of wor ship for you, as sensible people.
2 Don’t let yourselves be shaped by the world where you live, but rather be transformed through the renewal of your mind. You must discern the will of God: what is good, what pleases, what is perfect.
3 The grace that God has given me allows me to tell each of you: don’t pretend too much but think with sober judgement each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
4 See, the body is one, even if formed by many members, but not all of them with the same function.
5 The same with us; being many, we are one body in Christ, depending on one another.
6 Let each one of us, therefore, serve according to our different gifts. Are you a prophet? Then give the insights of faith.
7 Let the minister fulfill his office; let the teacher teach,
8 the one who encourages, convince.
You must, likewise, give with an open hand, preside with dedication, and be cheerful in your works of charity.
9 Let love be sincere. Hate what is evil and hold to whatever is good.
10 Love one another and be considerate. Outdo one another in mutual respect.
11 Be zealous in fulfilling your duties. Be fervent in the Spirit and serve God.
12 Have hope and be cheerful. Be patient in trials and pray constantly.
13 Share with other Christians in need. With those passing by, be ready to receive them.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not wish evil on anyone.
15 Rejoice with those who are joyful, and weep with those who weep.
16 Live in peace with one another. Do not dream of extraordinary things; be humble and do not hold yourselves as wise.
17 Do not return evil for evil, but let everyone see your good will.
18 Do your best to live in peace with everybody.
19 Beloved, do not avenge your selves, but let God be the one who punishes, as Scripture says: Ven geance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.
20 And it adds: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him to drink; by doing this you will heap burning coals upon his head.
21 Do not let evil de feat you, but conquer evil with goodness.
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Comments Letter to the Romans, Chapter 12
• 12.1 Paul here begins the second part of his letter: as in his other letters, he will try to be more practical here than in the first part.
Give yourselves as a living and holy sacrifice pleasing to God. It is not only Sunday that belongs to God – even if the weekly Eucharist is essential to Christian life. It is not only specific duties that we are to accomplish. God wants all that springs from our person.
Don’t let yourselves be shaped by the world where you live. We are invaded by pro paganda, fashion, and songs without considering the weight of our cherished past. All that is the world: it encloses us in its logic and its would-be necessities. Yet we should be free for our heart to be only for God! We however be come accustomed to what everyone does and still more to the sweet slavery of mo ney. With out being aggressive or pessimistic the Chris tian will always challenge the world.
Inner renewal must transform you. Before adopting a rule of life, you must first have its spirit. You do not imitate St. Francis by wearing a habit: you must first be shattered by the love of the poor Christ. Christian renewal springs from new criteria, from a new vision of existence, of the modern world and of our liberty. Baptism that makes new Christians of us, initiates a renewal of our spirit enlightened by God. See Eph 4:3.
You will know what God wants. Following the best rules is not enough; we must constantly force ourselves to discover, me ditate and understand the will of God in all the events of our life.
Take for example our body. See 1 Cor 12. We all form one body and we cannot give up our responsibility. Where Christians are very much in a minority, they usually depend a lot on the community that takes much of their time: this is the case Paul has in mind. He stresses that each one has his specific function in the Church: we are far from religious practice where the mass has mostly “listeners” who are silent.
• 4. From the way he speaks about Chris tian community, Paul lets us know that in his time it was not organized as in our churches today. In the early Church not everything de pended upon priests educated apart from the common people and sent to the Christian com munities from outside. As we said in Acts 14:23, the community elected a council of elders or presbyters, approved by the apostles. The most respected among them were the “prophets.” The body of presbyters, who had authority over the Church, were those who celebrated the Eucharist.
Everybody’s gifts were taken into account by the organization, which considered also as gift the ability to serve in the Church. See Ephe sians 4:11 and commentaries on 1 Timothy 4:14.
Throughout history the Church has had to change its organization and constantly adjust itself to new social structures and cultural deve lopment.
Give with an open hand. Paul passes from the good discharge of ministries to the ministry of love for others.
• 9. Verses 9-13 presents a program of Christian life. Rather than the commandments concerning external acts, Paul stresses internal attitudes and dispositions.
Do not return evil for evil (v. 17). A de man ding commandment of forgiveness so often for mulated by Jesus. It is a false wisdom that would advise us to return evil for evil, mean be havior for mean beha vior, a tooth for a tooth… It is also false wis dom (v. 16) to strive to be noticed by adopting customs of a higher social class, or to dream of a life without material pro blems, or to regard more highly moneyed people, the power ful or good speakers.