Slavery to Sin

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

Psalm 124, which we use as our responsorial today, recalls the flight of the children of Israel out of Egypt after many years of slavery under their taskmasters. Each of the three stanzas that we use today specifically names the dangers that they experienced after Pharaoh had let them go free. First, we hear of the army of charioteers who pursued them and, in the words of the psalmist, would have “swallowed” them up if it had not been for the presence of God in their midst. Next, we hear of the raging waters of the Red Sea which would have swept over them if God had not held the water back. Finally, the last of the three stanzas compares them to birds which could have been snared by their pursuers had God not broken the snare before it could harm them.

The experience of slavery that they endured during their sojourn in Egypt made the very word “slavery” a hot button issue. When Jesus called the elders and chief priests “slaves” in chapter eight of St. John’s Gospel, they reacted negatively and were unable to hear the message of the Gospel. No doubt, St. Paul’s use of the word in his Letter to the Romans would have been hard for the Israelites to swallow. St. Paul speaks of slavery to sin rather than slavery to a people of another nation. He reminds them that their bodies are not to be used to commit sin because Jesus had freed us from this kind of slavery.

When we hear this particular description in St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, we might think that he is addressing the specific issue of sexual immorality. However, our tongues can lead us into sin through malicious speech, our hands can lead us into sin if we take what is not ours, and our feet can carry us into sin if we go where we know we might be led into sin.

Through Baptism, we have died to sin in Jesus Christ and have been raised with him to life eternal. While we have not experienced eternal life yet, we know that it is to come if we prepare ourselves for the eventual return of Jesus of which he speaks in today’s Gospel text. Our communion with Jesus today is the promise of life everlasting.