Daily Reflection
of Creighton University's Online Ministries
-----
October 8th, 2010
by

Roc O'Connor, S.J.

Rector
Click here for a photo of and information on this writer.

Friday of the 27th Week in Ordinary Time
[465] Galatians 3:7-14
Psalm 111:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6
Luke 11:15-26

I’d like to explore the image that St. Paul employs in our first reading today: justification by faith. I find it has been taken about as far as it can be taken. I find it wanting.
 
Justification by faith viewed only within the framework of the courtroom with its judge, jury, prosecuting attorney, and defense attorney, produces the picture that a person is (always) on trial before God. All human beings are tried for our offenses and, under the threat of eternal punishment, are “saved” by the blood of Christ (in the Evangelical understanding) that covers our guilt. God then declares people who believe in Christ to be freed from punishment.
 
Here’s the way the image works: The person-on-trial is found guilty, then covered by the blood of Christ. Problem is that he/she is still left with the disgrace of guilt, even while being covered. What’s underneath the blood except defilement? Well, shame for one…
 
So, the image limps for me.
 
Here’s a thought: The English word, “justify” certainly has forensic implications. It also relates to carpentry and to type-setting. A carpenter uses a plumb line (a cord weighted at one end to determine vertical and right angles) to establish right angles or determines depth. That’s the basic picture here.
 
A vertical line can be described as ‘justified’ when the line is straight. The line is “right.” It is “upright.” It does not lean one way or list another. The line is “just.”
 
Applied to the Christian, it suggests that graces ‘justifies’ us by helping us stand up straight and walk in balance. Grace makes us “just,” or “upright” when it heals our limp, straightens our back, or heals our back humped over from carrying burdens. We walk in righteousness with God when we help free others from their burdens as well.
 
This image of “justification” gives a better picture of the workings of the grace of God, I believe. This exercise has helped me to think through the images that serve as the foundations of our theological statements. Perhaps it has been helpful to you.
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