Homily for July 12: Fifteenth Sunday: Romans 8:18-23

posted in: Uncategorized | 0

(Please read the passage cited above first.)

Today St Paul speaks about the sufferings we have in this life.  It is true that we suffer in this life.  SG\We groan and the whole of creation groans with us.

These sufferings and this groaning are a mystery.   We have the Spirit of God and so we have a foretaste of the glory we shall have in heaven.  Nevertheless, we groan and suffer: why?  It is a mystery.

A mystery is something that we can experience in one aspect, but in another aspect we cannot experience.  We have sinned and the whole of created nature suffers because of our sin.  The whole of creation groans and wants complete redemption.   For example, climate change is a part of this groaning.  Our domination of the fields and other natural resources are a part of this groaning.  Often in our responsibility for governing creation and we have mistreated creation’s natural world.  Creation wants to be set free from this abuse of ours and to enjoy the goodness of God with us children of God.

If all of us and the created natural world were living in harmony in the Garden of Eden before the sin of Adam, then because this sin, this harmony between the created world of nature and us has broken apart.  Therefore, we groan and the created world of nature likewise groans in need of redemption.

One facet of this groaning is climate change, another facet is the earth’s loss of fertility.  One facet of this groaning is that we have changed, another facet is our loss of fertility.

In the beginning, before sin, the whole of the world of nature generously gave us her fruits.  Now, however, we have to mark off the earth, scratch it and plow it so that we can harvest the fields for grain.  We want to dominate creation, but creation refuses to obey us.

As it was in the beginning, before sin, so it shall be in the fullness.  The whole of creation will live in the harmony God intends.  Now, through his death and resurrection, Christ has freed from condemnation and given the first fruits of the Holy Spirit to the whole of the created natural world and to us.  The first fruits are the hope that what we see now is not the totality of what we shall see in the fullness because there will be more for us and for the entire created world.

In this fullness of ours and of creation, our sufferings and the groaning of nature will disappear through the revelation of the fullness of the glory of God.