Daily Retreat 05/28/08
2008 May 28 Wed: Ordinary Weekday
1 Pt 1: 18-25/ Ps 147: 12-13. 14-15. 19-20/ Mk 10: 32-45
From today’s readings: “Since you have purified yourselves by obedience to the truth for sincere brotherly love, love one another intensely from a pure heart.... Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.... For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many....”
The Ransom that was Paid
“Redeemer” is one of the titles Christians recognize for Jesus Christ, but sometimes, we fail to appreciate the full denotation of that word in the context of salvation. We commonly speak of the custom of “redeeming” coupons, but that’s completely different from the act of “redeeming” souls!
The Latin root of this word means “to buy back” or “to ransom,” and that’s exactly what Jesus did for all mankind - since everyone’s life was forfeit as the wages of sin, Jesus, by laying down His life on the Cross, paid the ransom and bought back our life. As the first letter of Peter puts it, we were truly redeemed “not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished Lamb.”
If someone were to bail us out of bankruptcy, what gratitude we would surely feel! And even more so, if someone were to save our physical life! Yet, the redemption wrought by Jesus applies to nothing less than our eternal souls, and so our redemption can’t be repaid with any money in the world or ever earned with even a whole lifetime of service as a slave! Redemption is wholly the gift of God, and the best we can do is humbly, gratefully accept the gift, and use it as the Giver and Redeemer intends.....
1 Pt 1: 18-25/ Ps 147: 12-13. 14-15. 19-20/ Mk 10: 32-45
From today’s readings: “Since you have purified yourselves by obedience to the truth for sincere brotherly love, love one another intensely from a pure heart.... Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.... For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many....”
The Ransom that was Paid
“Redeemer” is one of the titles Christians recognize for Jesus Christ, but sometimes, we fail to appreciate the full denotation of that word in the context of salvation. We commonly speak of the custom of “redeeming” coupons, but that’s completely different from the act of “redeeming” souls!
The Latin root of this word means “to buy back” or “to ransom,” and that’s exactly what Jesus did for all mankind - since everyone’s life was forfeit as the wages of sin, Jesus, by laying down His life on the Cross, paid the ransom and bought back our life. As the first letter of Peter puts it, we were truly redeemed “not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished Lamb.”
If someone were to bail us out of bankruptcy, what gratitude we would surely feel! And even more so, if someone were to save our physical life! Yet, the redemption wrought by Jesus applies to nothing less than our eternal souls, and so our redemption can’t be repaid with any money in the world or ever earned with even a whole lifetime of service as a slave! Redemption is wholly the gift of God, and the best we can do is humbly, gratefully accept the gift, and use it as the Giver and Redeemer intends.....
posted by FrPitstick | 5/27/2008
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