12 So then, brothers and sisters,^* we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— ¹³for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. ¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba!^* Father!’ ¹⁶it is that very Spirit bearing witness^* with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Future Glory

18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. ¹⁹For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; ²⁰for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; ²³and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴For in^* hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes^* for what is seen? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes^* with sighs too deep for words. ²⁷And God,^* who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit^* intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.^*

spirit of slavery: opus dei

Todays’s passage is one of the summits of Paul’s thinking and I haven’t time to do it justice. I can however pick out two marvellous affirmations and comment briefly on them:

1 “We have not received a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear” but rather an adoptive spirit that makes us confident children of God. In spite of the best efforts of magisteriums, inquisitions, presbyterian excommunications, self flagellations and many other monstrous deformations of the gospel of Jesus, we are treated by Jesus as his sisters and brothers, and encouraged to approach God with his word, Abba, dear father. Hallelujah!

2. The pain that is part of our lives and the lives of all  creatures is not meaningless but is the labour pain of a new world. God’s rescue of us is not at all complete; its comprehensive transformation of us and all creation is promised. Meantime  we live courageously trusting that our commitment to a better world is not a useless passion, but shared with the God who has come to share our suffering in Jesus Messiah. Creation is on tip-toe, Paul says, to see the glorious freedom of God’s children. 

women priests

Meanwhile I greet my brother in the Lord, Pope Francis 1; thinking that no Pope has yet  dared to take the name of the man whom the Pope Innocent 3rd saw in his dream as propping up the crumbling edifice of the church. I am encouraged that this Francis is also a man of the poor, and hope he may be able to take the Catholic church beyond its European captivity-half of its cardinals are European-and beyond its male captivity-all its priests are men. These changes would release tremendous energy, faith and wisdom in the church, for its ministry to the world.

A prayer in Spanish for Pope Francis 1:

Senor

dame la serenidad

necessaria

para acceptar las cosas que no puedo cambiar;

coraje

para cambiar las cosas que puedo;

y astucia

para saber la differencia. Amen.