All Souls’ Day, 2nd Reading (Romans 6:3-9)

You can find the gospel commentary for today here: https://biblestudystjosephsparis.wordpress.com/2021/11/02/all-souls-day-2-november-gospel-commentary-john-637-40/

³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. ⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. ⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.

On All Souls’ Day we remember and pray for all those we have lost through death. In the second reading for today, Paul discusses the transformation that death underwent through Christ’s sacrifice for us – one that provides us with great hope. He begins with a rhetorical question that expects a positive answer. We should all know that baptism (which in our society is generally given to newborns) links us to Christ and more particularly to his death. In Paul’s time, generally only adults received baptism and it did look like a symbolic death: they would enter a river or pool and allow the water to close over their heads. When they re-emerged they were reborn. For Paul baptism was not just symbolic: in some mysterious way we cannot understand, all Christians truly participate in Christ’s death and resurrection, and not just mythically re-enact them.

In verse four, Paul turns to the consequences of our dying with Christ: we have also been buried with him. And this means that we will be resurrected with him and share in his new life. Christ’s resurrection was not like that of Lazarus for he did not simply return to this life. He defeated death and thus created a new type of life. Furthermore, his death and resurrection affect everyone. Through baptism, we are told in verse six, we are crucified with Christ and our old self dies. This “old self” is our heritage from Adam and thus one full of sin. But, through baptism we have a new self that is based on Christ who is sinless and so our relationship to sin changes completely. Notice how Paul uses the passive tense here because none of this is achieved through our actions – only God’s. As a result, “the body ruled by sin” disappears. This does not mean that our physical body is evil for as Christians we believe that all God created is good and that our bodies (like Christ’s) will be resurrected with us. Rather, Paul uses the term as a shorthand for the person in their entirety (both body and soul) enslaved by sin as opposed to the person freed from sin.

By dying with Christ, we learn in verse seven, we are freed from sin. Paul sees death as the penalty for sin and once that penalty has been paid (through Christ’s sacrifice) punishment has ended. Therefore, Christ has freed us from the mastery of death. Christ is the new Adam who offers us a new and eternal life. James D.G. Dunn argues that “Paul did not think of believers dying with Christ as a single event in their conversion (or baptism). Rather the step of faith was an engagement with Christ in his death which was to last their whole life through.” And so on All Souls’ we remember all those we have lost and especially those who who engaged with Christ throughout their lives.