The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Romans 5:12-15

Brothers and sisters:
Through one man sin entered the world,
and through sin, death,
and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned—
for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world,
though sin is not accounted when there is no law.
But death reigned from Adam to Moses,
even over those who did not sin
after the pattern of the trespass of Adam,
who is the type of the one who was to come.

But the gift is not like the transgression.
For if by the transgression of the one the many died,
how much more did the grace of God
and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ
overflow for the many.

Here is my Deacon’s Corner column for the bulletin for All Saints Catholic Church:

Today’s reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans is one of my favorites. I often go to this reading when I teach about Jesus’ mission of salvation and how Jesus saved us. Soter is Greek for “Savior,” so the study or theology of how Jesus saved us is called soteriology.

St. Anselm of Canterbury, the 11^th century bishop and Doctor of the Church, expounded on St. Paul’s soteriology found in the fifth chapter of his Letter to the Romans. St. Anselm, whose teaching was later embraced by St. Thomas Aquinas, offered his understanding of how Jesus saved us in his classic text, Why God Became Man (Cur Deus Homo?).

St. Anselm wrote that, because Adam offended God by his disobedience, he separated himself from God, and thus all his descendants are born into a state of being separated or alienated from God. This is what the Church calls Original Sin. Original Sin is not a sin that any one of us committed. Original Sin is being born into a state of alienation from God as a consequence of the sin of Adam.

St. Anselm reasoned that the measure of an offense is determined by the honor of the one offended. Because God is eternal, His honor is eternal. So, Adam’s offense against God is an eternal offense, impacting people of all generations to come. Because Adam, the father of mankind, is the one who offended, then man must be the one to make amends for the offense. So, there is the conundrum! Man offended God, so man must make amends. But man cannot make amends for an eternal offense because man is not eternal. How can this be resolved?

It was God who came up with the solution, and that solution was the Incarnation. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity humbled Himself and became human, one of us, like us in all things except sin, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Because Adam disobeyed God, sin and death were introduced into our world. The sacrifice Jesus offered to the Father for the sake of our redemption was His life lived in perfect obedience to the will of the Father, even unto death. Just as the one man, Adam, disobeyed and brought sin and death into our world, so the one man, Jesus, perfectly obeyed even unto death, thus freeing us from the grip of sin and death.

Jesus is fully divine and fully human. Because He is fully divine, eternal God, then the eternal sacrifice He offers can make amends for the eternal offense against God. Because Jesus is fully human, one of us, one with us, then His sacrifice offered to the Father counts for our sake.

The Church rightly proclaims in the Exsultet at every Easter Vigil, O felix culpa: O happy fault, that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer!  

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.