The text we heard from Romans in today’s second reading is very familiar to Pluscarden monks in its Latin version. Obsecro (itaque) vos fratres, per misericordiam Dei... These words of St. Paul are sung in several different contexts as a short Chapter of the Divine Office. We are at the beginning of Romans Chapter 12. In most modern Bibles you find a major division marked here. Paul has completed his massive doctrinal exposition, and he turns now to moral exhortation. But a crucial link word - οÞν in Greek - omitted in our translation, binds the two sections of Romans very closely together. οÞν means “Therefore”. Because Christ has done all this for you, therefore you should respond in this way. And I beseech you to do that; I appeal to you; I beg you! No one, not even God, will make you: but you definitely should!
Why should we? In order to respond to God’s mercy, to enter it, to inherit it, to reap its fruits. We could say that Romans is all about God’s mercy. The word has occurred anyway multiple times at the end of Chapter 11. Paul there sums up his argument so far, especially regarding God’s dealings with Jews and gentiles. Just as you gentiles were once disobedient to God but now have received mercy (...) so the Jews have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you, they also may receive mercy. For God consigned all men to disobedience, in order that he might have mercy upon all.
So, brethren, I beseech you, by this mercy of God... But how should the gentile Roman Christians respond to God’s mercy? They should do what God’s law required the Jews of old to do; but they should do so in reality, and no longer in figure only. They should show that they love God above all things; that they love him truly and totally, because he first loved them. So they should offer sacrifice to God: sacrifice that will be pleasing to him; that will be pure, lawful and holy; sacrifice that will be efficacious, both as worship and as intercession. Such sacrifice cannot any longer involve the killing of animals in the Temple. All that was only ever a symbol, a preparation, a temporary substitution, and it has now all been brought to an end with the death of Christ. No: baptised Christians must offer to God nothing less than themselves, both body and soul. Henceforth their whole life must be one great act of worship, of self gift, of adoration, of love
Those first Roman Christians would have understood that what Paul is here evoking is the diametric opposite of what he described in the first Chapter of his Letter. There we read of how people did not honour God or give thanks to him (1:21). Their minds were darkened, so they worshipped instead man-made idols, or even beasts, or demons. Nothing then prevented them from plunging into the worst and most degrading excesses: sexual immorality, and all sorts of injustice and corruption, mercilessly spelled out there by Paul. On the positive side, the Roman readers would recall Paul’s magnificent description of life in the Spirit in his Chapter 8. If you live according to the flesh, he says there, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live (8:13).
Worship God, says Paul, here in Chapter 12, in a way that is worthy of thinking beings (JB) - or with spiritual (RSV) or rational worship (12:1). In a moment Paul will indeed give us some do’s and don’ts. For now, though, it’s extremely important that we grasp the principle he establishes here. Christians are exhorted to live in a way that befits their dignity, as made in the image of God, and as adopted children of God in Christ Jesus the Lord. Among our greatest God-given gifts are intellect and will. These are not somehow diminished or restricted by Christ, but on the contrary they are elevated, enlightened, set free. The law of the Gospel is the law of the Spirit, who is freedom. Of course there are such things as inviolable moral norms. But we don’t obey these like slaves. We live them out in accordance with our conscience, out of love for God, in worship of Him, led by the Holy Spirit, and always in union with Jesus Christ, and with his holy Church.
Therefore, says Paul: Do not be conformed to this world - or this age (12:2). In the first place, he’s referring here to a mentality which is closed to God, and to eternal life in heaven. According to such a mind-set, things like happiness, or pleasure, or wealth, or fame, or success in this world are all there is to hope for. So we should grab at them and try to enjoy them while we can. The Christian attitude is completely different from that. Precisely we need to sit lightly to such things. For we are heirs of an eternal inheritance, stored up for us. We live always in hope for what we do not yet see; waiting for it with both patience and ardent longing (cf. e.g. 8:17,23,25).
Nowadays, like those first Roman Christians, we live in a culture that constantly urges us to adopt its own secular mentality, whose values are at odds with those of the Gospel. None of us is immune to this relentless, but often subtle pressure, so we have deliberately to resist it. I suppose that this temptation afflicts not only individual Christians, but even the Church as a whole. We see its emptiness if we keep our gaze fixed on Jesus Christ, who offers us something infinitely better, more attractive, more desirable. And Christ does not leave us as he found us. He gives us - and he asks us for - complete transformation; radical renewal; a new love, a new joy, a new focus, a new life.
It seems to me that St. Paul’s words here manifest all their beauty and power when seen in their proper context, which is within the sacramental life of the Church, and especially within the Holy Eucharist. The holy Eucharist is given us to strengthen, upbuild, nourish, encourage, support our Christian lives. Here we have the true and perfect sacrifice to God, that of Jesus on the Cross. Here we have Christian prayer, in the communion of Christ’s mystical Body, together with instruction from Holy Scripture. And here above all we unite ourselves, identify ourselves, with Christ crucified, and with Christ risen and glorious. Then, through him, and with him, and in him, we are able to understand what is God’s will, in general and in particular; and we offer to God the Father a worship that is truly living, and holy, and acceptable.