Free to serve God
Luke 1:69-70, 71-72, 73-75. January 28, 2023 - Saturday
Memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church
Our responsorial psalm today comes from the song of Zechariah. After being silenced for nine months, the father of John the Baptist finally was allowed to speak right after he named his son, John. The first line of Zechariah’s song declares that “the Lord the God of Israel visited his people and brought them redemption” (Luke 1:68). God’s visitation and his redemption refer to the mystery of the incarnation and the crucifixion.
The term “redemption” comes from the word “to ransom”. In the biblical view, we have been enslaved by sin and there is no way we can set ourselves free. Only someone sinless, who is free from the power of sin, can set us free. But, it can only happen when he would be willing to offer his life as a ransom for our freedom. The letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus became like us in every respect with one exception: he was “without sin” (Hebr. 2:17; 4:15). On the other hand, in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus tells us that he came “to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
Zechariah speaks about liberation from sins and enemies. The power of sin is described by Paul in the letter to the Romans. It can take something good - God’s commandment - and turn it into something bad - a burden. For example, the serpent presented God’s commandment given to Adam in the garden of Eden forbidding them to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2:16-17) as if God was protecting his divine status (see Gen 3:4-5). Paul also describes our futile struggle against sin. We have good intentions but we end up committing sins. In the words of Paul: “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” ( Rom 7:15-20).
The enemies that Zechariah mentions in his song cannot be identified with the Romans because Jesus’ death on the cross did not achieve a political liberation for his people. In the letter to the Ephesians, the apostle clarifies that our enemies are not people but “the cosmic powers” of darkness and “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12). In the book of Revelation, those forces are portrayed fighting with the angelic forces of God and with Christ’s believers (see Rev 12). They are the ones who hate us.
After describing our desperate condition under the yoke of sin, Paul asks: “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” And he immediately answers: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom 7:24-25). In the letter to the Colossians, he describes those spiritual forces of evil as being disarmed and put to open shame by God through Jesus’ death on the cross (see Col 2:15). And so we are free at last. We are free “to serve [God] in holiness and righteousness before him all our days” (Luke 1:74-75).