Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (A): Romans 8:28-30
“We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28
All things work for good.
Really?
To many people today, that statement, taken out of its context, will seem way too optimistic. We have seen, time and time again, the evils that all too often capture our minds and wills – everything from horrifying atrocities that happen in far-off places to the mean-spirited pettiness that can afflict us where we live. When we witness terrorism, gratuitous violence of other kinds, divisions between people, childish politics, environmental dangers, economic uncertainties, and other challenges in our world, and the personal trials we all face, it becomes increasingly difficult to think that “all things work for good”. At times, it certainly doesn’t feel that way. How could Paul say such a thing, we wonder?
First of all, the people of Paul’s time had their own experience of evils, corruption, and atrocities of all kinds. Paul himself did not write these words from some sheltered ivory tower. He was wandering from city to city, meeting people who had never heard the name Jesus before, where Roman legions ruled and Caesar was worshipped as a god, and telling them that a Jewish carpenter who was condemned to death in a far-off country by the Romans was really the Lord of all. Paul himself had more than his share of personal sufferings because of his ministry, and would have still more. The odds against him were huge. He was no Pollyanna, nor did he wear rose-colored glasses. Looking at his life on a surface level, he had no more reason to believe that “all things work for good” than any of us today.
And yet, he wrote those words. How?
Paul has been building up to these words throughout his letter to the Romans, but he brings his arguments together in the eighth chapter, from which these words are taken. All of creation was made by God to be good. However, the sin of Adam – including the sins of all humanity from its beginning – damaged humanity and, though it, all of creation. We witness this damage in ourselves and in creation. We intuitively know what we – and the world – should be, and yet it is not that way, and neither are we. None of our own efforts – even our best ones – can cure things. We find that we groan inwardly as we see how far we – and all things – are from what all was intended to be. In fact, Paul tells us, all of creation also groans, in a sense, as it is still subject to sin and evil.
God, however, is faithful to humanity and to all his creation. It was the will of the Father to restore all things in Christ and to fill them all with the Spirit. In Jesus, humanity is refashioned into the image of God that it was intended to be. Jesus, who alone is literally true God and true man, becomes the model or template, so to speak. What God has done in Jesus, he will do in us. All who now believe in Jesus will be refashioned into God’s image. We will gradually become younger siblings, so to speak, of Jesus himself. In us, the world will begin to see what God has in mind for all who place their faith, hope, and love in him. Even though we will be fully remade in God’s image at the resurrection of the dead, it has begun even now. Because God is faithful to his promises, God will bring it about. All things will work for good.
The groanings that we experience in ourselves and in all of creation as we see the power of evil in the world are, for Paul, more evidence of God’s faithful presence. For it is not only our own hearts that groan. The Spirit himself, our Advocate, prays in us with groanings that cannot be expressed in speech, groanings that the Father accepts. It is interesting to note, in this context, that in some Gospel accounts of Jesus’ healings, he groans before he heals the afflicted person. These groanings, then, are a sign that we are already being pulled in to the very life of the Triune God. God is at work in us even now, and he will bring his work to his intended conclusion if we trust him.
This conclusion, however, does not come without suffering in this life. If we are to become images of Christ, and if Christ suffered, we can also expect suffering. We can also expect to be led, perhaps in smaller ways, to the seeming defeat and absurdity of the cross in our own lives. This is not because God arbitrarily inflicts pain on us. It is precisely so that we can become true images of Christ to others, and that others might be drawn to Christ through us. Look around, and see how many people bear pains of every kind. Many of their sufferings are actually invisible to us most of the time, as ours are to them. However, those who bear sufferings with trusting, patient love will find that they are inwardly transformed. Their hearts are enlarged. They love more, and from a greater depth. They begin to draw suffering and searching people to them, without really trying. People will intuitively see in such Christians some beacon of hope, precisely because of how they live their sufferings in their lives. God’s power is made manifest most truly through what we usually call our weakness. The cross of Christ shows us that the greatest of sufferings can become the means of the greatest blessings.
This is indeed a great mystery. Words cannot do it justice. Paul assures us that all who love God will be caught up in this mystery, and will discover for themselves how – against all seeming odds – all things can work for good. God is faithful. That is enough for us.
As a way to better understand all this, read Paul’s letter to the Romans. It won’t take that long, and it will give you a better sense of where Paul is coming from. If you have access to the New Interpreter’s Bible (a multi-volume Bible commentary), read N.T. Wright’s commentary on Romans. A great place to go to get a fuller sense of what Paul is saying here. Definitely worth reading!