The Transfer of the Holy Relics of the Holy Great Martyr Theodore Tyro.
Apostle’s Fast.
Romans 7:1-13; Matthew 9:36-10:8.
Read Romans 7:1-13
In today’s reading, St. Paul uses the image of death and freedom to explain the reality of the newness of Christian life. “My brethren,” he says “ you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.” (Romans 7:4)
Paul appeals to the principle that a law only has dominion over a person as long as they live. For example: a debtor’s obligation dies with the debtor, and a wife is bound to her husband only as long as he lives. Once the husband dies, she can remarry without committing adultery.
We likewise, being bound by the old covenant with the Mosaic Law could not espouse ourselves to another. But after our death in Christ, we are now free to be united to the new husband – Christ the bridegroom of the Church. We die to the law through the body of Christ in Holy Baptism that we might rise with Him to begin a new life – the life of the Resurrection. As we read in the Church’s baptismal service: grant that he who is baptized therein may be transformed; that he may put away from himself the old man, which is corrupt through the lusts of the flesh, and that he may be clothed upon with the new man, and renewed after the image of Him Who created him: that being buried, after the pattern of Thy death, in baptism, he may, in like manner, be a partaker of Thy Resurrection.
Just like a newly wed couple begins a new mode of life together after their wedding, we Christians are called to begin a new mode of life in Christ, after our baptism. Just like that newly wed couple, we who are wed to Christ are also called to, “Be fruitful and multiply”. As the co-operation of a human couple brings forth the fruit of children, our co-operation (synergia) with Christ brings forth the fruit of good works and holiness of life; and so “Wisdom is justified by her children” (Matthew 11:19). The children in this case being the sons and daughters of the divine bride, the Church, who are called to bring forth good works and to bring these to the world – transforming it as leaven and helping all around us rise towards God.
May God grant us the grace to bring forth abundant fruits!