3rd Sunday in Lent

Third Lent Sunday (year A)

(Romans 5:1-2, 5-8)

Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Paul sees believers in Jesus as being in a state of grace. He expresses this state of grace with the word 'justified'. Justification is accomplished. This is the truth that Paul proclaims. The passage from life to death, from sin to grace, takes place, has taken place, and will always take place through faith in Jesus Christ. By using the aorist passive participle (= having been justified), Paul emphasises that this work now belongs to us. He alludes to a specific moment in the life of Christians that belongs to the past: baptism. We are justified "ek pisteōs" - by faith. Jesus Christ, who died and rose again, is the sacramental place where this justification takes place, which is accessed through faith. We are justified the moment we believe and accept Jesus Christ as the one and only Word of eternal life.

What happens when our justification is accomplished? We are at peace with God. The author of salvation is also the author of peace: there is no true peace except in Christ. This peace was established when we, enemies of God, were reconciled to God by Jesus Christ. Peace is not a state of inner balance, nor is it our peaceful behaviour. Peace is the restoration of our relationship with God, because we are reconciled as a result of justification. When we are at peace with God, we also find peace with other people; we also find peace with creation, which we are to protect and cultivate, as it is a gift entrusted to our care by God so that we may make it a home where people can live with dignity, wisdom and joy. The mistake of man today is to think that there can be peace among men and with creation while man remains in his falsehood and sin. Peace comes only from justification and only as long as man lives as justified.

One is at peace if one is in Christ, one is at peace if one lives in the word of Christ, one is at peace only through Christ. This is the cry that Paul makes resound in his churches, so that they may be convinced that outside of Christ no peace will ever be possible. It is an illusion to think of peace without justification, to think of peace outside of Christ. Peace is Christ, it is in Christ, it is through Christ. He is the way through which a person can go in peace towards another person. Those who exclude Christ close off the path to true peace. Without Christ there can never be peace, because people are not in the truth.

Faith, therefore, is faith in God who has made Christ the only way to salvation. However, our faith in God becomes effective only if it is faith in the work of Christ. God the Father and Jesus Christ are one principle of faith, one faith that saves. It is through this faith that we obtain the gift of peace, because it is through this faith that we are justified, that is, God cancels our debt, makes us his children in Christ, and restores us to his friendship. This is peace.

'Through him': Christ is the instrument and the key to access the new condition of life that has been realised in him. The peace mentioned in verse 1 is considered from another perspective in verse 2: it is a grace. Paul says that he has had access to 'this grace in which we stand'. Grace is to be understood as the redemption wrought by Christ through his death and resurrection. Paul is very proud of this grace. And that "we boast" is not the result of human presumption, but is the joy that comes from the awareness of having been chosen and saved through Christ and in Christ, despite our miserable condition as sinners, and which in some way gives us a foretaste of the state of full and definitive glory. Paul boasts in order to magnify and praise the Lord, to bless and exalt him for his great love. All that Paul is, all that believers are and will become, is only by grace, and this is what we must boast about, not our own merits.

Paul's boasting rests on a truth: he is firmly established 'in the hope of the glory of God', that is, he rejoices in the hope of one day sharing in the glory of God, which for the justified will be the crown and the end of all things. Paul knows that immeasurable eternal glory awaits him. This is his strength: the hope that arises in him from faith. This hope should not be thought of as a simple human desire; rather, it is already a certainty, since it defines a reality that already exists and in which we already find ourselves, even if it has not yet been fully and definitively attained. However, we are called to live it now, conforming our lives to this new reality in which we live. Thus, our life is an eschatological life, deeply marked by an 'already' and a 'not yet'.

Those who do not have this hope become entangled in the things of this world and are suffocated as thorns suffocate the good wheat. Today, almost all of us are losing hope in the glory of God. Almost all of us are building a horizontal Christianity, without its fundamental truth. We must recover and strengthen ourselves in the specificity of our faith. We must find pride in our being Catholics, disciples, ministers, ambassadors, heralds of Jesus Christ, in the hope of future glory. If the believer loses sight of hope, his Christian being is purposeless. When true faith dwells in the believer, there is also strong hope; when hope is lacking, it is a clear sign that his faith is weak or non-existent. It is a faith that cannot open the door to eternity, and without the opening of this door, the little faith that resides there will sooner or later be lost, for the characteristic of faith is to walk towards the eternal glory of God in his kingdom of light and eternal peace.

Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books

- Apocalypse – exegetical commentary

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, true God and true Man in the mystery of the Trinity

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

Catholics and Protestants in comparison – In defence of the faith

The Church and Israel according to St Paul – Romans 9-11

(Available on Amazon)

683 Last modified on Monday, 02 March 2026 12:33

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Argentino Quintavalle

Argentino Quintavalle è studioso biblico ed esperto in Protestantesimo e Giudaismo. Autore del libro “Apocalisse - commento esegetico” (disponibile su Amazon) e specializzato in catechesi per protestanti che desiderano tornare nella Chiesa Cattolica.

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First, the world of the Bible presents us with a new image of God. In surrounding cultures, the image of God and of the gods ultimately remained unclear and contradictory (Deus Caritas est n.9)

Vi è anzitutto la nuova immagine di Dio. Nelle culture che circondano il mondo della Bibbia, l'immagine di dio e degli dei rimane, alla fin fine, poco chiara e in sé contraddittoria (Deus Caritas est n.9)

God loves the world and will love it to the end. The Heart of the Son of God pierced on the Cross and opened is a profound and definitive witness to God’s love. Saint Bonaventure writes: “It was a divine decree that permitted one of the soldiers to open his sacred wide with a lance… The blood and water which poured out at that moment was the price of our salvation” (John Paul II)

Il mondo è amato da Dio e sarà amato fino alla fine. Il Cuore del Figlio di Dio trafitto sulla croce e aperto, testimonia in modo profondo e definitivo l’amore di Dio. Scriverà San Bonaventura: “Per divina disposizione è stato permesso che un soldato trafiggesse e aprisse quel sacro costato. Ne uscì sangue ed acqua, prezzo della nostra salvezza” (Giovanni Paolo II)

Thus, paradoxically, from a sign of condemnation, death and failure, the Cross becomes a sign of redemption, life and victory, through faith, the fruits of salvation can be gathered (Pope Benedict)

Così la Croce, paradossalmente, da segno di condanna, di morte, di fallimento, diventa segno di redenzione, di vita, di vittoria, in cui, con sguardo di fede, si possono scorgere i frutti della salvezza (Papa Benedetto)

[Nicodemus] felt the fascination of this Rabbi, so different from the others, but could not manage to rid himself of the conditioning of his environment that was hostile to Jesus, and stood irresolute on the threshold of faith (Pope Benedict)

[Nicodemo] avverte il fascino di questo Rabbì così diverso dagli altri, ma non riesce a sottrarsi ai condizionamenti dell’ambiente contrario a Gesù e resta titubante sulla soglia della fede (Papa Benedetto)

Those wounds that, in the beginning were an obstacle for Thomas’s faith, being a sign of Jesus’ apparent failure, those same wounds have become in his encounter with the Risen One, signs of a victorious love. These wounds that Christ has received for love of us help us to understand who God is and to repeat: “My Lord and my God!” Only a God who loves us to the extent of taking upon himself our wounds and our pain, especially innocent suffering, is worthy of faith (Pope Benedict)

Quelle piaghe, che per Tommaso erano dapprima un ostacolo alla fede, perché segni dell’apparente fallimento di Gesù; quelle stesse piaghe sono diventate, nell’incontro con il Risorto, prove di un amore vittorioso. Queste piaghe che Cristo ha contratto per amore nostro ci aiutano a capire chi è Dio e a ripetere anche noi: “Mio Signore e mio Dio”. Solo un Dio che ci ama fino a prendere su di sé le nostre ferite e il nostro dolore, soprattutto quello innocente, è degno di fede (Papa Benedetto)

We see that the disciples are still closed in their thinking […] How does Jesus answer? He answers by broadening their horizons […] and he confers upon them the task of bearing witness to him all over the world, transcending the cultural and religious confines within which they were accustomed to think and live (Pope Benedict)

Vediamo che i discepoli sono ancora chiusi nella loro visione […] E come risponde Gesù? Risponde aprendo i loro orizzonti […] e conferisce loro l’incarico di testimoniarlo in tutto il mondo oltrepassando i confini culturali e religiosi entro cui erano abituati a pensare e a vivere (Papa Benedetto)

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