When I went back to work after my children were in school, I became a marriage and family therapist. Marriage and Family Therapy focuses on what helps families get along with each other, solve life’s problems, forgive each other, and raise children. To these purposes, one very effective tool in a MFT’s toolbox is the tool of “reframing.”
Reframing is looking at something from a different perspective in order to get a different meaning—especially a meaning that permits movement toward family cohesion or flexibility—toward functional love.
Reframing gives us an interesting way to look at the book of Romans.
Romans
Today we begin a four-week study of Romans in the daily readings. The infant church in Rome was a mixture of Jews firm in their Hebrew heritage and newly converted Gentiles of pagan culture. The church was strong, yet in a delicate position because it was right under the nose of the emperor and others who made the Roman gods the official deities of the Roman empire.
The Roman church was an intelligent church with lots of questions, opinions, and debates. It was not a church at peace with itself. Yet it was not a church at war. It was a church growing and struggling like adolescents tend to do—emotional, inquisitive, feeling its oats one day, mired in doubt the next. St. Paul writes to the Roman church with both conviction and understanding of the various perspectives that create the conflicts. In the process he gives the church through the ages doctrine and logic for issues that continue to come up—just as questions and issues come up through the years in families.
Many scholars consider the book of Romans as St. Paul’s best work and as the most complete picture of the struggles that faced Christianity in the first century. It was written in AD 57 or 58 toward the end of Paul’s third missionary journey while he was in Corinth.
The overarching theme of Romans is that sinful people cannot redeem themselves. Redemption comes through the gratuitous gift of grace obtained through faith in Christ, made possible by his death and resurrection.
“To bring about the obedience of faith”
When I began praying from today’s reading last week, the phrase that immediately jumped out at me was “to bring about the obedience of faith.” It was God’s Word for me this week. What exactly does “to bring about the obedience of faith” mean? I did not know. A note on this in my Didache Bible called it “the full and wholehearted acceptance of the Gospel, the ‘good news’ of salvation won for us by Christ. We correspond to the gift of faith, which is a light to the intellect and impulse to the will, by freely assenting to both this light and this impulse.”
This wasn’t clear enough. I went to the catechism. It says:
142 By his Revelation, “the invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses men as his friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into his own company.” The adequate response to this invitation is faith.
143 By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God. With his whole being man gives his assent to God the revealer. Sacred Scripture calls this human response to God, the author of revelation, “the obedience of faith.”
144 To obey (from the Latin ob-audire, to “hear or listen to”) in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself. Abraham is the model of such obedience offered us by Sacred Scripture. The Virgin Mary is its most perfect embodiment.
That clarified things for me:
- God takes the lead. God seeks me, seeks you, seeks everyone out. He invites us to come be with him—eventually in heaven, but also right here and right now, just where we are.
- The adequate (ie good enough) response to this invitation is faith.
- What is faith? It isn’t just belief. It is completely submitting will and intellect to God. Wow! It is saying “yes” to God’s invitation to come toward him, to get to know him. It is being willing to walk with him and learn his ways.
- What is obedience? It is to submit to the “word that has been heard.” I take that to mean that as we come to understand the ways of God we change our lives to match them.
Aha! For Current Controversies a Reframe
As I put all this together for me, I apply it to questions in my heart as I read about issues some people have with Pope Francis’ style and direction of leadership. I apply it to controversy in the church related to politics in the US. I apply it to issues people have with how do we interact with people who were baptized Catholic, but who now ignore or disdain the faith or who have left the church because of marriage issues. I apply it to issues of how we relate to those who are actively humanist, agnostic, atheist, or a “none.” I apply it to issues around sexual expression and orientation.
I know and love people who fit on every side of each those controversies. The people I know and love on every side of all those controversies are good people from everything I can see.
Yet, how can they all be right and good if Truth is objective and given by God? It can’t be.
Do I have to be absolutely sure of the right in order to interact with them? Do I have to insist that they be of the same theology and morality as me?
I take what Paul is saying is that we are each and all called to obedience to the Word of faith we have heard. We are not all on the same place on that faith journey. I must be obedient to where I am. You must be obedient to where you are.
Might I be mistaken or unformed or in sin? Yes! Might you? Yes. Might the people with whom I disagree? Yes.
Reframe solution: Instead of thinking of people as conservatives, liberals, Republicans, Democrats, faithful Catholics, fallen-away Catholics, etc—let me think of us all as Jews and Gentiles, trying to form a cohesive community that lives in stark contrast to the culture around it. Let me realize that on one issue today I may be in the role of Jew—as one who has known God and his ways for many years. But on the next issue I may be in the role of Gentile—as one who is unfamiliar with God’s ways. Let me see my friends and the various people I read in a similar way: about some things they know God’s ways well—in other areas, perhaps not.
Let me now study Romans these next four weeks (and through most of 2020 in the Sunday readings) through the eyes of this reframe.
Prayer:
Lord, today reframe my heart. Let such a reframe increase my humility. With an increase in humility, give me graces to test my ground before I stand firm, to stand firm when I need to, to always seek to open my eyes to see from Your perspective, to change my heart when it hardens, to journey with You, Lord. You seek us all. Find me Lord—always. Let me walk with You to find, encounter, love, and welcome others into Your Life, Your Love. Yes, Lord, reframe my heart.
