A Spiritual Heart Transplant

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

In St. Paul’s mind the grace that God has given us in Christ is something like a divine heart transplant. In the passage from the Letter to the Romans that we proclaim today, he tells us: “although we were once slaves of sin, we have become obedient from the heart.”

In baptism, you and I received the grace of complete forgiveness. Freed from all sin, we are no longer slaves to it. At the same time, we also receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is constantly at work in us, moving and drawing us to live in a more Christ-like manner. This is what Paul speaks about when he speaks of us “becoming obedient from the heart.” It is God at work in us, making us more and more like Jesus. As we become more like Christ, we experience more and more of what Paul in a later chapter of the Letter to the Romans calls: “the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

Yet, as Christians, we know that our journey to the holiness and freedom that God offers is an ongoing process. Growth in righteousness requires a daily “yes” to the grace of the Spirit at work within our lives. We also know that there are times that we become complacent. Like the servant who appears in the Gospel text for today, we can think that our Master’s return is still a long way off, and begin to put off doing what we know is required of us.

The Lord’s invitation for us today is to remember the grace of our baptism to remember that God has set us free from sin in order to live in holiness. As we come to the Lord’s table this day, let us give thanks that this Eucharist, which we are about to receive, offers us strength in our struggle against sin. May it nourish us to live in the freedom of God. That is our baptismal inheritance.