O Hidden Life, vibrant in every atom;

                       O Hidden Life, shining in every creature:

                       O Hidden Life, embracing all in oneness

 

                       May all, who feel themselves one with You,

                       know that they are, therefore, one with every other.

                                                                    Ann Besant, 2005AD

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Never Doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has!!!!!!!!!

            

                                 Margaret Mead

 

Sunday, October 5, 2008AD

27th Sunday in Greentime

 

Don’t Worry, Be Happy???

Paul, Part 17

        As St Paul speaks to the adult Christian community in Philippi, he could have used a song made popular a few years ago by Bobby McFaren, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. The song is still popular and still cheers us up.  However, how many, these days, take its lyrics seriously? Does St Paul mean the same thing in his words to the Catholics of Philippi (and Armonk?)

        We are experiencing difficult days right now and it is hard to follow Bobby McFaren’s facetious and St Paul’s serious advice. St Paul felt that the most important thing was the death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, in which God made human  participated in the process of ascent, descent and transformation that is germane to all life. God runs every show.  God invented the physical principle of “conservation of energy”, viz., nothing is wasted.  Everything is convertible into something good by the Creator, the Sustainer and the Goal of life. 

        St Paul understood that life in Christ Jesus is an ongoing project.  In our early life, we get our “roots and wings” from our families and church and communities.  In early adulthood, most of us “build our tower” and make our mark in life.  Somewhere in the midst of all this, each person and each group (no exceptions) is forced to “take a walk in the woods”.  We come to realize (hopefully) that life is more than building  a tower or taking the world by storm. We learn that we have to bear pain in our lives, viz., that we can fix, understand and control everything.   In later adulthood, we must make “leaps of faith again and again” into the vicissitudes of life.

        St Paul understood at all stages of life, Catholics need to hear the Gospel again and again. It is not that the Gospel changes; it is that we change as we journey through life.  As Pope John Paul said, “We all need to hear the Gospel again – for the first time.”

        The central mystery of the universe is the Paschal Mystery. Christ Jesus, the archetype of creation, experienced the Paschal Mystery, viz., death and Resurrection in Christ.  Through Him, Catholics (and all others, although they probably don’t realize it) experience death and Resurrection again and again and again.  All, especially Catholics,  need to “leap in faith”, to “let go and let God”, to “bear the pains that are a part of every life” (even in the American Dream).

        In the midst of life in Philippi and in Armonk, St Paul tells us, “Christ Jesus is near”.   We recall Jesus’ own Words a few Sundays ago, when He says, “Wherever two or more gather in My Name, I am present with them.” Indeed, His nickname in St Matthew’s Gospel is “Emmanuel, God is with us”.  Catholics believe that these words are true on good days as well as bad.

        Curiously, we hear from Paul that two women were feuding in the Philippian Catholic community.  He tells them to lighten up. We know that these folks also experienced alienation from outsiders as well as other turmoils in life.  We can safely assume that they experienced disappointments, rejections, absurdities, fatal events in the life of family and friends, as well as the other turmoils of life.  Sadly, we know from other Pauline letters that adult Catholics experienced in their relationships, at times, addictions, infidelity, and abuse. God the Father and Christ Jesus are everywhere; we are somewhere. God and Christ Jesus live in us and we live in God and Christ Jesus. Therefore, St Paul tells these folks in Christ (and us as well) to “Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God…will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”.

        These adult Philippian Catholics did not laugh St Paul out of town. They preserved this letter, as well as their Philippian Catholic Community, still around long after St Paul died in Roma.  These adult Catholics in Christ took Paul’s words seriously and with God’s Help, tried to live their everyday lives with the view that, in all things, “Christ Jesus is near” and that in Christ Jesus, they lived the Paschal Mystery of death and Resurrection in Christ.

        Both Jesus and St Paul saw the Gospel to be a Way of Life for grownups.  Probably, as Philippian Christians rode their chariots home from the Eucharist each Saturday evening, they tried to explain Paul’s words to their children through their words and through their actions.  In and with and through Christ, we have to do the same.  100508AD jfq

                 

Sunday, September 28, 2008AD

26th Sunday in Greentime

“In Christ Jesus” Means More Than We Think --Meet St Paul XVI

“In Christ Jesus” is a term which St Paul uses over 150 times (twice this weekend) in his letters. What exactly does the term mean to St Paul and his adult audience who heard his letters proclaimed in house churches in the 1st century as well as here in Armonk now?

          Humble folks realize that the more we know, the more we know that we don’t know. This is known as the medieval doctrine of ignorantia docta , viz., “learned ignorance”. (Oriental  traditions call the concept “Beginner’s Wisdom”.) When someone tells you that he or she has cracked the language about the Infinite or our relationship with the Infinite, be careful!  All language about the Mystery of God is ultimately inadequate. Humble folks know that liberating truth.

          Quoting St Paul, Pope Benedict writes that Jesus is the Exemplar of Humanity, the Last Adam.  As a result, the blueprint of Jesus exists in each person. Members of the Jesus Movement are called to lives of inclusive election, by which we proclaim the permeation of Creation by Christ Jesus to all and in all whom we meet.

          Maybe, this is what St Paul means so frequently when he tells his Jesus Movement communities that they exist in Christ Jesus.  Maybe, this is what the Christian Church means when we use the triad expression, “Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ.”

          In the week ahead, the Church salutes St Francis, who, in the opinion of many, caught the vibrational field of Christ Jesus proclaiming it so authentically that even after 800 years, the man from Assisi’s prophetic attitude still evolves.

          During the Middle Ages, apparently enough people joined the Third Order of St Francis, a lay community that lived in the world that evolving city-states had to take into account that large numbers of their citizenry were sharing an alternate worldview, the vision of the Kingdom of God, proclaimed by Jesus and updated by the Franciscan Movement. 

          In the 21st century, each of us has all it takes (with God’s Help) to be Honorary Franciscans as well.  Recently, Dr Gerard Vanderhaar, one of the founding members of Pax Christi USA, suggested ways in which we can all practice Christian non-violence by adapting with God’s Help some behavior modification in mundane areas.  For example, we can adopt non-violent dialogue with one another. “Non-violent dialogue avoids hurting others, through shouting angrily and insultingly. …So does avoiding obscene  language, deserved to shock…In addition, there is the use of language that comes from a world in which damage and hurt are taken as tools of conversation, when in reality they come from a context of violence and hurt.  Such expressions include the following: Sometimes, people say “fire away”, when they are to be questioned.  If they do not give the correct answer, they are “blown away” or “shot down.” Advertisers “target” a specific audience.   An editor “kills” a story.  (The editor could say, “don’t print it!”)  Also,  we should be increasingly sensitive to sexist, racist, ethnically disparaging remarks.”  

Let us hope that most Catholics really do want to live peacefully and non-violently with one another, never returning injury for injury.  Let us hope that most Catholics really want economic justice for one another and that we don’t blame the poor for being poor.  Let us hope that most Catholics really want to live with all men and women as brothers and sisters, not as stratified societies based on status, class, wealth, race, or ethnicity.  Finally, let us hope that most Catholics really want to do something about the fact that the ocean is slowly heating up around us and that more hurricanes and thinner ozone layers in the future might be caused by global warming.   

          Catholic ranks are already filled with people like this.  We are all already “Honorary Franciscans”, Third Order Members even now. 

          St Francis caught the vibrational field in Christ Jesus through and with and in Whom we all live.  We can catch Jesus’ vibes as well by paying attention more to the implications of the adult message that Jesus proclaims and the mediation of that message by people like St Paul and St Francis.  As a simple sign of our intention, join those in our parish who pray the Prayer of St Francis at least 5x a day.  Work now for the “Great Convergence, viz., when a critical mass of humanity realize that whether one becomes a Christian or not, he or she comes to see that the Vision of Jesus of Nazareth is the one that corresponds to reality as it should be. You might not change the world; you might change your own!! Quantum physicists and quantum theologians, indeed, agree with Jesus and St Francis that everything is related. God lives in reality; reality lives in God. Catch the Spirit!  Feel the Vibes of Jesus! With God’s Help, go for the Big Picture!   092808AD jfq       

 

 

Sunday, September 21, 2008AD

25th Sunday in Greentime

Women of Philippi – Meet St Paul XV

When you have the opportunity, read over St Paul’s Letter to the Philippians at one sitting.  It is only 4 chapters long and it is beautifully written.  We will be hearing excerpts as part of our second reading these autumnal Sundays. St Paul is easy to follow in this brief letter; the time and effort is worth it, anytime, particularly during this Pauline Year.

          We know a great deal about the city of Philippi.  It was the scene of a battle in which Mark Antony and Octavian Caesar defeated Brutus and Cassius in 40BC, after the assassination of Julius Caesar.  The climate there was good, and the victors encouraged veterans in the Roman Army to settle there. (It would be comparable to San Diego, California today.)

          St Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles (Peter and Paul) that St Paul visited Philippi and went to the banks of a nearby river on a Sabbath where he meets a group of God-fearers (Gentiles who were attracted to Judaism, but never became Jewish themselves).  In his discussion with the women in the group, St Paul attracted the enthusiasm of a woman named Lydia, who received the gift of faith at that time. Lydia was a business woman from the town of Thyatira, who dealt in purple goods (which only affluent folks could afford). She invited St Paul and his travelling companion to come and stay at her house after her entire household was baptized. St Luke tells us, therefore, that the Church of Philippi first was assembled in the house church of Lydia. (Acts 16. 11-15)

          Also, St Paul, in his “behavior modification” section at the end of the Letter to the Philippians encourages two women of the community to “make nice”. The two, Euodia and Synthche, had a disagreement about something and St Paul encourages them to come to a mutual understanding in the Lord. He entreats the Philippians to help them settle their differences, for they have struggled at my side in promoting the Gospel.  The very fact that two of the prominent women in the Jesus Movement in Philippi were at loggerheads is a red flag that St Paul was heeding.

          We know from other places in the letters of St Paul that women, from the very beginning, were very influential in the house churches that he addressed. In Rom 16, which is the farewell section of the mighty Letter to the Romans, from which we have heard excerpts all summer this year, St Paul sends his greetings to various people he had met somewhere in the past and hoped to meet again if and when he got to Rome.  Commentators have long reflected on this list.  About 25 years ago, a sociologist of religion, Wayne Meeks, at Yale University wrote a book entitled, The First Urban Christians, in which he did a detail study of the names that St Paul mentioned in his letters.  His conclusion is that, indeed, the Pauline strategy of building Christian house churches was showing the unity of the Gospel message that transcends barriers of nationality, religious traditions or racial status. One might add the clear influence of women in the Pauline methodology. In addition to the three prominent ladies mentioned in the Philippian context, St Paul addresses several women who were leaders in the Roman house churches as well. Names include Phoebe, a deacon (ess?) from the Corinthian milieu who apparently was traveling to Rome. In addition, St Paul greets Prisca and Aquila, who are mentioned throughout the Christian Scriptures.  The interesting thing to note here is that Prisca (Priscilla) is usually mentioned first, before her husband. Other women whom he mentions include Mary, Tryphaena and Tryphosa, Julia and Olympas and Junia.

We should note the important name Junia, St Paul describes her a Jewish woman who are prominent among the Apostles and they were in Christ before  (him) me.  St Paul became a member of the Jesus Movement very early, some think, maybe five years after the death and Resurrection of the Lord.  Junia was a Jewish Christian who was in the Jesus Movement as an Apostle even before St Paul!! What’s up with that? (Fr Raymond Brown offered the caveat many years ago that we are never told in the Christian Scriptures who presided over the Saturday night gatherings for the Lord’s Supper in the various house churches.)

          The mention of the several ladies prominent in both the Philippian and Roman house churches remind us that the role of women has been pivotal in the Jesus Movement from the very beginning. These women whom St Paul mentioned would certainly have all been familiar with the baptismal hymn that St Paul quotes in Gal 3.28.  For through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus.  For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek,  there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  What does that mean these days?    092108AD jfq 

  

 

Sunday, September 14, 2008AD

Holy Cross

                                             Carmen Christi –Meet St Paul XIV

            No, it is not necessarily a woman’s name, but it could be.  Actually, it refers to our second reading this weekend as we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Cross.

          According to legend, St Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, who legalized Christianity in 312 AD discovered the true Cross on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  On September 14, 612 AD, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius recovered the cross, seized by Persians. 

          Recently, Constantine is named in the novel, Da Vinci Code as the one who legislated the divinity of Jesus Christ at the Council of Nicea in 325!! Evidently, the author of the book forgot (at best) several biblical quotations which belie the storyline of his novel.  Our 2nd reading today, the “Carmen Christi”, viz., the Song of Christ” was one thing that he omitted or distorted somehow in his story.

          Biblical scholars comment on the lofty terminology that is used by St Paul in the letter to the Philippians, whence it is excerpted, written around 55 AD.  Paul is quoting a hymn that they had already learned! (c. 50 AD??) Not on the radio or Internet, either. 

          Now, Jesus relinquished the “form of God”. Is this a reference to Adam who was tempted to be like God? Jesus empties Himself to take the “form of a servant or slave”. Is this a reference to either the Suffering Servant (from Isaiah) or merely the human condition (whether we admit it or not, we are not our own masters.) 

          Jesus submitted to the humiliation of death on the cross and is exalted by YHWH, given the Name (Kyrios) “Lord” above every name and all proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord.”  St Paul jumped the gun on Dan Brown by 270 years!!

          In the Carmen Christi, we are called to live in Christ Jesus with the same attitude.  St Paul says that Christians should be humble and obedient, as was Jesus Christ, in Whom we are now baptized.

          The word “humility” is derived from the Latin word, humus , earth, soil.  Humility reminds us that, indeed, “we are dust and unto dust we shall return”.  If that doesn’t humble you, what could? St Paul does not want us to be morbid, but honest and realistic.

          The word “obedience”, derived from the Latin words ob , “because of”, & audire ,” to listen”, reminds us to hear the  Word of God Incarnate, our Lord Jesus Christ.  St Paul wants us to behave in a Christian , (viz., totally human) fashion. With God’s Help, how are we doing?

          Difficulties abound within a cultural collective subconscious that directly challenges what Christ did through His Self-emptying, His acceptance of our human existence as well as His obedience to God. How does His death and Exaltation affect us here and now?

          In our first reading, where Moses prays to YHWH for a respite from the plague of serpents, YHWH tells Moses to raise up a bronze image of the deadly serpent on a pole (a tree). All who look upon the bronze serpent will be healed. The symbol of death becomes the symbol of healing.

  The Tree of the Life was the center of the Garden of Eden and its violation by our first parents in the story of the Fall of our First Parents involved disobedience about the tree.  Not for nothing, but for Christians, the cross on which our Savior, God’s Son made human and our older brother at the same time, was made of the wood of a tree. In biblical faith, Adam’s tree, on the one hand, was the source of our defeat; on the other hand, Christ’s tree is the source of our victory.  The paradox speaks beyond words.                   

          In a contemporary world, still male dominated, despite strides by feminists, is a culture that has difficulty bearing its pains.  It has been said that most men, in general, are bred in a success-oriented milieu, that many men are incapable of dealing immediately with defeat, loss, depth, failure because of the mystique of male bravado.  A wise theologian said, some time ago, that all religion ultimately has to do with learning how to bear the unavoidable pains of life.  Many men have been programmed by the culture to fix and understand and control reality, but eventually, the shadow side of life sets in, the days that are not so good.  Because culture encourages a rugged individualism, (witness commercials on Sunday afternoon football games!), many cannot cope with the times when we need to reach out to others (including God).  As a result, when a culture is male dominated and males are dominated by a desire to control, understand and fix things, push comes to shove when men (and their culture) cannot fix, understand and control everything. The illusion of autonomy is burst and men wonder what happens next? 

          God is in control, not we.  God is a God of Life and of Love, but of Mystery as well.  We do not always get the answers that we demand. We learn that God runs the show, not we.  In humility, in obedience and in pouring ourselves out for one another, we learn that God is more on top of every situation than we are.  The Paschal Mystery of descent and transformation, described in the Carmen Christi, triumphs within us on good days as well as not so good, if we live our lives daily in Christ Jesus. 091408AD jfq               

 

Sunday, September 7, 2008AD

23rd Sunday in Greentime

 

Now What Do We Do?

Part Thirteen

            That Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead changes everything.  Everything in your life and mine rises and falls with the cross of Christ Jesus.  The  thing that ultimately counts in your life and mine is that Christ Jesus rose from the dead. We live the effects of the Paschal Mystery even now, not yet.  What St Paul tells the Roman house churches (and the Armonk house churches) can take that to the bank.

          Now what?  How do we respond to what God has done for us in Christ Jesus.  The bottom line, according to St Paul, is to live each moment, 168 hours a week, in Christ Jesus, with lives of obedient faith, of thanksgiving (Eucharist).

          According to St Paul and other New Testament writers, a response in faith is a life of ethical monotheism. St Paul tells Roman Christians (and us), “Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the Law”. (Rom 12.8)   St Mark tells us, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mk 12.30-31) St John tells us, “Love one another as I have loved you.”  (Jn 15.12) St James tells us, “If you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well.” (Jas 2.8)     

          What did that mean for a Jewish Christian in Roma in 55AD? What did it mean for God-fearers in Roma (Gentiles who were attracted to the high principles and ethics of Judaism, but never became Jews)? What does it mean for us?

          Some Jewish Christians felt that one still had to abide by the Torah with regard to religious rituals, such as Torah, Kosher and circumcision.  St Paul’s response was,” If you want to do so, knock yourself out! However, don’t think that this will put you in better stead with God.  Christ Jesus makes the difference for you, not your putative fulfillment of a performance principle.”

          St Paul felt that the problem was solved for Gentile Christians (including us).

Although, at times, we think we earn points  by the performance principle, spiritual capitalism, salvation by works,  it should be easier for us to see our need for Christ Jesus.

          Salvation was won for us by Christ Jesus and we share in Christ Jesus’ Paschal victory through baptism into Him. Catholics take the reality of the Deep Incarnation seriously.  Christ Jesus lives in us; we live in Christ Jesus.  Our lives, hopefully, in Christ Jesus will be ongoing lives of Christification, viz., Christ in us enables us to Gospel living 168 hours a week.

          As the New Testament calls the love of neighbor commandment the royal law, how do we live it today? A great starting point would be a serious commitment to the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have done unto you.” A variation of the Golden Rule appears in every major religious system, East and West. Some call the Golden Rule a global ethic.  Christians push the Golden Rule forward a notch with the “win-win proviso”, viz., not only treat others as we would be treated, but try to create a scenario in which everyone clearly wins.  It may not be possible always, but in Christ Jesus, may Catholics give it a shot.

          St Paul saw his Roman house churches in the mid-fifties of the first century as beachhead communities in which the Jesus Movement would mutually support one another with a sharing of an alternative view of reality, viz., Jesus is Lord (Nobody and nothing else is!!) He felt his small communities could change the world as the leaven of the Gospel permeated the Eternal City back then.  His timeframe was off; his methodology was not. In Christ Jesus, may the effects of the leaven continue to permeate the dough.  In, with and through Christ Jesus, may Armonk Catholics do our share. 090708AD jfq      

                 

Sunday, August 31, 2008AD

22nd Sunday in Greentime

Now What Do We Do?

Meet St Paul – Part 12

         Usually, St Paul in his letters develops two sections.  The first section is the “teaching section,” viz., what St Paul is passing along as his teaching in the letter. The second section is the “behavior modification” section.  If my teaching in the first part is sound, then perhaps, you might make some adjustments in your Worldview, if applicable or necessary.

Throughout the first eleven chapters of his letter, St Paul has addressed why neither Jew nor Gentile should feel superior to the other.  All of us have sinned.  All of us have sinned and missed the mark of authentic human living.  Nobody can stand up and say honestly that he, she or they, ever have done totally what God expects of us.  Everybody is under the sway of powers and principalities that are bigger than we are.  (Think of addictions, compulsions, entanglements that afflict individuals, their families, their culture here!!) God understands that better than any of us and that is why our liberation was won through the Paschal Mystery, the universal process of death and resurrection, of loss and regeneration, of creation, destruction and re-creation in Christ Jesus.  God’s own Son made human, the archetype of creation as St Paul sings in Colossians, is the macrocosm of creation. What happens in Him happens in each of us.  Christ Jesus has taken care of it for us!!

            We become cells in the Body of Christ through baptism. Now, the macrocosm exists in the microcosm, as quantum physicists and theologians proclaim.  As St Paul sang in another place, “Christ is living in me”. He meant it.  Thus, through baptism, the process of Christification is energized by the Holy Spirit. Now in Christ Jesus, let us try to behave that way 24-7-365.

            In the second portion of the letter to the Romans, St Paul tells the house churches or cells of Roma (and Armonk) to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.”  The interesting thing to note here is the word that St Paul uses for worship is the word  liteurgia (laos – people; ergos – work) , the etymology of our word liturgy!! 

              Ironically, the word that most Catholics associate with Sunday worship is the word that St Paul is using to describe our everyday behavior, whether we are in our house church or not. St Paul sees our everyday conduct as a response of gratitude or thanksgiving to what God does for us through, with and in Christ Jesus. Throughout the Christian scriptures, biblical writers of all stripes stress the universality of the commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

          St Paul is not talking primarily here about liturgical worship, although obviously he is including liturgical worship as our ritual expression of thanksgiving and gratitude that we gather for each Lord’s Day. What we do weekly here at St Patrick’s, please  God, reflects and bolsters what we do the other 167 hours of the week. St Paul is not talking here in either...or terms. Rather, he is talking in both…and terms.  How we proclaim and act here is how we should proclaim and act there!

            It is impossible to live the love commandment with God’s Help.  Through, with and in Christ Jesus, we need to give it a try in a culture that says it is a Christian one and yet, frequently trusts things other than God for security (pace the inscription of our coinage!)

St Paul knows that when he urges “Do not conform yourself to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the Will of God.”

          St Paul believed that small Jesus Movement cells, or house churches, in metropolitan areas around the Meditterrean would be the defining way in which Israel would become the light of the nations in Christ Jesus.  He urged each Christian, then and now, to join him in his belief that Jesus is Lord, nobody and/or nothing else is.  The life-giving virus of the Gospel has been unleashed  in creation through the death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus.  St Paul wanted Christians, then and now, to signify their gratitude for what God has done in Christ Jesus through living a life of Eucharist, not in a schizophrenic way, but in a (w)holistic way,  not 1hour -167hours, but 24-7-365.  St Paul believed that Christ Jesus has changed the world.  We show our agreement when we live (w)holistic lives in Christ Jesus no matter where we are.      083108AD jfq                     

           

Sunday, August 24, 2008AD

21st Sunday in Greentime

 

Meet St Paul – Part 11

Whenever there is a baptism, wedding or funeral here at St Patrick’s, the usual custom is to offer a few provisos about worship.  One of them, simply, is that the God Whom Catholics worship here is the God Who Self-revealed to Moses at the time of the liberation of the Chosen People from slavery in Egypt the Sacred Name, YHWH.  This God further Self-identified in the Incarnation of God the Son made human, our Lord Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus teaches us in His Paschal Mystery that our God is the God of Love.  God is Love and the ones who abide in Love abide in God and God abides in them.

The second proviso that we offer is that all language about God is ultimately metaphorical.  God is like the….; God is like a… As St Thomas Aquinas taught 750 years, our God is always Deus major, God greater.  God is always more unlike what we say about God than God is like what we say.  God is the God of Mystery, infinitely knowable and therefore, infinitely unknowable simultaneously.

St Paul uses this familiar biblical argument today as he concludes the extended section of his powerful letter to the Romans in which the Apostle to the Gentiles (who remained a Jew until the day of his martyrdom in c.67AD) discussed the question of how Gentiles Christians and Jewish Christians could agree on basics.  The great basic is that nobody can save himself or herself.  All miss the mark; all sin. Salvation is a free gift (Greek word, charis, grace) won for us all through our sharing in the destiny of God’s Son made human, Christ Jesus.  

   St Paul was discussing the vexing question of why so many Gentile God-fearers (Gentiles who attended Jewish synagogues in Roma) were now becoming part of the Jesus Movement, while the Messiah’s own kinsfolk were not getting on the bandwagon themselves.