Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.
He said to him, “Follow me.”
And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.
Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house,
and a large crowd of tax collectors
and others were at table with them.
The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying,
“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.
I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.” Lk 5: 27-32
Who would Jesus sit by today in your life? The answer below is quite interesting.
First, we have to define the difference between a righteous person and a sinner (in the sense of being saved; not in the sense we are all sinners and need God’s mercy even after we are baptized). It seems Jesus does not care about the righteous in the Gospel today, the opposite is true. I decided to see what makes a person righteous in God’s eyes. St. Paul, John the Evangelist, St. Augustine, and the Council of Trent in the Catechism of the Catholic Church define righteous or justification.
PART THREE
LIFE IN CHRIST
SECTION ONE
MAN’S VOCATION LIFE IN THE SPIRIT
CHAPTER THREE
GOD’S SALVATION: LAW AND GRACE
ARTICLE 2
GRACE AND JUSTIFICATION
I. JUSTIFICATION
1987 The grace of the Holy Spirit has the power to justify us, that is, to cleanse us from our sins and to communicate to us “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ” and through Baptism:34
But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.35 (Rom 6:8-11)
1988 Through the power of the Holy Spirit we take part in Christ’s Passion by dying to sin, and in his Resurrection by being born to a new life; we are members of his Body which is the Church, branches grafted onto the vine which is himself:36 (1 Cor 12; Jn 15:1-4)
[God] gave himself to us through his Spirit. By the participation of the Spirit, we become communicants in the divine nature. . . . For this reason, those in whom the Spirit dwells are divinized. 37 (St. Athanasius)
1989 The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion, effecting justification in accordance with Jesus’ proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”38 Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high. “Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.39 (Council of Trent)
1990 Justification detaches man from sin which contradicts the love of God, and purifies his heart of sin. Justification follows upon God’s merciful initiative of offering forgiveness. It reconciles man with God. It frees from the enslavement to sin, and it heals.
1991 Justification is at the same time the acceptance of God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. Righteousness (or “justice”) here means the rectitude of divine love. With justification, faith, hope, and charity are poured into our hearts, and obedience to the divine will is granted us.
1992 Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men. Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy. Its purpose is the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal life:40
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus.41 (Rom 3:21-26)
1993 Justification establishes cooperation between God’s grace and man’s freedom. On man’s part it is expressed by the assent of faith to the Word of God, which invites him to conversion, and in the cooperation of charity with the prompting of the Holy Spirit who precedes and preserves his assent:
When God touches man’s heart through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, man himself is not inactive while receiving that inspiration, since he could reject it; and yet, without God’s grace, he cannot by his own free will move himself toward justice in God’s sight.42 (Council of Trent)
1994 Justification is the most excellent work of God’s love made manifest in Christ Jesus and granted by the Holy Spirit. It is the opinion of St. Augustine that “the justification of the wicked is a greater work than the creation of heaven and earth,” because “heaven and earth will pass away but the salvation and justification of the elect . . . will not pass away.”43 He holds also that the justification of sinners surpasses the creation of the angels in justice, in that it bears witness to a greater mercy.
1995 The Holy Spirit is the master of the interior life. By giving birth to the “inner man,”44 justification entails the sanctification of his whole being:
Just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification. . . . But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.45 (Rom 6:19, 22)
A righteous person is one who is baptized (repented and has given their life to Christ and rejected Satan). Baptism is given to us by God’s grace through His Son dying on the cross; we are purified by His blood. A person of sin (anyone who is not baptized) dies to all sin in Baptism and is given a new life in Jesus Christ, we are justified or righteous. We receive it by faith. Many of us try to reason our way to heaven, but in the end it we have to believe God by faith. We need both. Last, St. Paul tells us, “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.”
This leads us full circle. A baptized person is righteous but I don’t think all baptized persons realize the responsibility or duty we have being a baptized person. Jesus has given up His very life for you by taking away every sin you repent for. We are first called to die to self, put on Jesus, fight our personal sin and Satan, do good deeds for others especially the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy, carry our crosses, pray and most importantly bring others to Christ. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is modeling for us that we who are baptized must evangelize and bring others to Christ in Baptism.
Do the people in your life recognize Christ in you? Don’t forget you may be the first person a non-Christian sees, will they see Christ? Do people want to get baptized because they see joy in your life from being Christian?
Today’s challenge: Reread your baptismal promises http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=1653, model Christ by living out your baptismal promises, Praise God for His mercy and grace and giving us the opportunity for eternal life.
Become a saint!
Christian YOLO
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