The 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time, September 13, 2020

Romans 14:7–9

Brothers and sisters: None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For this is why Christ died and came to life, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Since today’s Gospel reading came up in the daily cycle of Mass readings not long ago, let us examine this significant text from today’s second reading.  We have here a snippet from a larger argument St. Paul is making to the Christians at Rome who are still learning how to be Christians.  The argument has to so with pious practices such as fasting.  An issue has arisen at Rome with those who did not fast feeling annoyed with those who did, and with those who fasted with those who did not.  Paul makes the point that they ought not to fight over ascetic practices of this kind which were a personal spiritual matter and did not involve commandments of the Church, for in the end all are striving to serve God to the best of their ability.  He reminds them that they are each of them servants.  Now, servants performed a number of roles and tasks in the Roman household which required specialized training.  There were secretaries who could read and write, cooks, entertainers, lady’s maids, valets, kitchen servants, dining room servants, stewards, and many other types.  Each had his or her prescribed place and set of expectations.  Paul points out that though this is true, they are all servants and belong to one master.  One servant had no business criticizing another, particularly a servant with a different job which the other did not understand.

“None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself.”  The servant did not work for himself.  He was owned by his master, and it was expected that the servant had no private concerns of his own but only those of his master.  This was ensured by the fact that the master supplied the servant’s basic needs of shelter and food.  Paul teaches here that the Christian is this servant.  God takes care of his servant’s basic needs, for as the Lord Jesus said,  “Be not anxious therefore, saying: What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed?  For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knows that you have need of all these things.” (Matthew 6:31–32).  Thus, the Christian is free to “seek therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice.”  The true servant does not even “die for himself”, that is, defending his own property or honor, or the like.  Absolutely everything he has comes from the master, and so the servant would be expected to die for the master’s property or honor, of it came to that.  The Christian, likewise, does for God, not for himself or his own interests.

“We are the Lord’s.”  This simple statement sums up the entirety of the moral and spiritual life.  We are to act as servants; we are to think as servants.  By thinking as servants, by “becoming” servants of God, we act as his servants, and so lead moral and virtuous lives.  In order to become these servants we are baptized, where we receive the graces that makes this servitude possible in the first place.  And then we work hard to defeat our pride, to learn humility.  We strive to look, speak, and act as those already committed to the Lord’s service.  We follow his laws and imitate the lives of his saints.  We realize that our only interests are his interests.  All of this takes time and work.  When a foreign captive was brought to Rome and sold as a slave, he did not become docile and perfectly obedient at once.  He remembered his previous life of freedom and longed for it.  He might well harbor rebellious tendencies.  But if he saw his fate now tied to his master and that he faced starvation or violent death without his protection, then he learned these things, and might eventually rise to a place of trust within the household. As Christians we struggle with docility and obedience too, but we have the grace of God to help us.

“For this is why Christ died and came to life, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”  Jesus shows himself the perfect Servant of the Father by his Life and Death, and in order to perfect us, he entered into our life and death, touching them from the inside and making them the means of serving Almighty God.