April 18

f we truly believe that Christ died for our sins, then we have no alternative but to make ourselves strangers to everything sinful and to reckon sin our greatest enemy, because it caused the death of our Redeemer. By admitting any further connection with sin or attachment to it, we make it clear that the death of Christ means nothing to us, prepared as we are to embrace and pursue the very thing which he attacked and conquered.

If we have risen with Christ, who is holiness itself, and are walking with him in newness of life along the path of holiness, then Christ has risen for our justification. But if we have not yet renounced our former sinful ways and are still living in wickedness, then I say without hesitation that, as far as we are concerned, Christ has not risen for our justification nor was it for our sins that he was handed over to death. If I believe he gave his life for me, how can I love the sins for which he died? And if I believe he rose for my justification, how can I still find pleasure in anything sinful? Christ will only justify those who, in the light of his resurrection, embrace the new life he offers them, casting off the old life of sin and injustice that cause his death.

From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.

HTML text prepared by David P. Steelman