A couple of months ago in the second reading at Mass St. Paul wrote to Timothy a concise summary of the whole Gospel message, “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David: Such is my Gospel.” Thus St. Paul links the supernatural, even divine, elements in Jesus Christ (… raised from the dead. …) with the natural and human aspects of the Savior (… a descendant of David).
His mention of the Resurrection summons to mind the eternal, heavenly and spiritual characteristics of the Christian life. His reference to Christ’s descent from David recalls the human and time bound features of Christianity. Like David the poet and soldier, believers can be insightful and courageous. Like David the adulterer and murderer, a believer can be lustful and deceitful. In so many words, the apostle celebrates the exalted divine nature and lowly human nature united in the person of Christ. Both saints and sinner can find hope in Jesus.
This Sunday, in quite similar words from an earlier epistle, St. Paul anticipates his words to Timothy. He writes to the Romans:
“Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the Gospel of God, which he promised previously through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, the Gospel about his Son, descended from David according to the flesh, but established as Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Again St. Paul cites Christ’s descent from King David is ample testimony that the Savior was indeed a human being. The new translation of the Creed will read that Christ, “ … Mary and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried.” So from conception to death, Jesus faced all the challenges of the human community – even death. Happily on the other hand this same Jesus was “established as Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness through resurrection from the dead.” The Gospel message does not just highlight mankind’s weakened nature in sore need of redemption. The Gospel also proclaims the prospect of life on high with Jesus Christ in a triumphant burst of power through the Holy Spirit shared with mankind in the next world but even in this world. The Gospel not only reminds mankind of his sins and need of reconciliation; it also promises mankind regeneration and renewal in eternity.
Both as human beings and as believers, Christians must accept the truth that man is “simul justus et peccator” – at the same time righteous and sinful, to quote Martin Luther. By baptism every believer is endowed with the Holy Spirit who arrives with his healing and vivifying graces, guiding, directing and fortifying the Christian pilgrim on his way to eternal life. This endowment is real, powerful and effective. Yet at the same time, the Christian experiences the tug of sin inherited from those first parents Adam and Eve. An inordinate attraction to earthly gratification in all its forms presents a daily struggle facing every man and woman. Lust, greed, pride, anger, envy, sloth and gluttony are just as much a part of the Christian life as holy water and rosary beads. Yet the tempted sons and daughters of King David are also the redeemed brothers and sisters of the resurrected Christ. The point of Christianity is precisely that Christ is much more a hope than King David is a liability. “Where sin doth abound, grace doth more abound,” as an older translation quaintly but keenly read.
The message this last Sunday before Christmas is clearly one of hope. In the first reading, Isaiah bids Ahab to hope in the eventual birth of a Messiah. In the Gospel passage, St. Joseph is urged not to lose hope in the child to be born of his espoused Mary. There is nothing naïve about the Christian virtue of hope. Hope is not idle speculation. Hope is not wish fulfillment. Hope is buoyed by the belief that God will carry out effectively the promises that he has made through Jesus Christ.
In Jesus Christ, man’s weak human nature is definitively raised to divine status. In Christ, men become “sharers in the divine nature” as St. Peter daringly phrased it. All the fulfillment discovered by Christians in the resurrected Christ is already theirs as a pledge of support in this life and a promise of fulfillment in the next life. Christ gives even sinful man every reason to hope.
