Adam Sinned; Jesus Saved

Homily for Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

The text that we read today from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans presents us with a bit of a problem. Why does St. Paul seem to repeat the same idea over and over again. To be sure, the entire text can be reduced to four words: “Adam sinned; Jesus saved.”

St. Paul’s complex argument does, however, answer a question that many have asked; namely, why did God choose to become human? The answer is really quite simple. Because it was a human being who had sinned, another human being had to set things right. It was necessary for the man Jesus to suffer death to wipe out the original sin of Adam. If God had simply waved a magic wand and told us that we were forgiven, the magnitude of this gift might have been missed or easily forgotten. Because Jesus was a man, every time we look at a crucifix and realize how much Jesus suffered, the gift of our redemption becomes overwhelming.

Yet another question has been answered, a question about obedience. Obedience is one of the three evangelical counsels. Poverty, chastity, and obedience are the building blocks of religious life. Each of them comes to us from the life of Jesus the man. However, St. Paul’s argument today reminds us that Adam’s disobedience was the cause of the downfall of humanity. Jesus remedies this by obedience to the will of his Father. Because Jesus obeyed, we have been saved. Because Jesus died, we have been redeemed. Because Jesus became human, our human nature has been raised up.

The Gospel text for today speaks of servants who are waiting for their master. We are those servants, and Jesus is our master. St. Luke reminds us that the servants who are waiting will be served by their master! We cannot lose sight of this. The man Jesus exemplifies not only obedience to the will of the Father, he also exemplifies the humility that is an essential part of this equation. We witness that humility once again today as we approach this table to receive his body and blood. The humble and meek human Savior teaches us through his example.