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)

696 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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In addition to physical hunger man carries within him another hunger — all of us have this hunger — a more important hunger, which cannot be satisfied with ordinary food. It is a hunger for life, a hunger for eternity which He alone can satisfy, as he is «the bread of life» (Pope Francis)

Oltre alla fame fisica l’uomo porta in sé un’altra fame – tutti noi abbiamo questa fame – una fame più importante, che non può essere saziata con un cibo ordinario. Si tratta di fame di vita, di fame di eternità che Lui solo può appagare, in quanto è «il pane della vita» (Papa Francesco)

The Eucharist draws us into Jesus' act of self-oblation. More than just statically receiving the incarnate Logos, we enter into the very dynamic of his self-giving [Pope Benedict]

L'Eucaristia ci attira nell'atto oblativo di Gesù. Noi non riceviamo soltanto in modo statico il Logos incarnato, ma veniamo coinvolti nella dinamica della sua donazione [Papa Benedetto]

Jesus, the true bread of life that satisfies our hunger for meaning and for truth, cannot be “earned” with human work; he comes to us only as a gift of God’s love, as a work of God (Pope Benedict)

Gesù, vero pane di vita che sazia la nostra fame di senso, di verità, non si può «guadagnare» con il lavoro umano; viene a noi soltanto come dono dell’amore di Dio, come opera di Dio (Papa Benedetto)

The locality of Emmaus has not been identified with certainty. There are various hypotheses and this one is not without an evocativeness of its own for it allows us to think that Emmaus actually represents every place: the road that leads there is the road every Christian, every person, takes. The Risen Jesus makes himself our travelling companion as we go on our way, to rekindle the warmth of faith and hope in our hearts and to break the bread of eternal life (Pope Benedict)

La località di Emmaus non è stata identificata con certezza. Vi sono diverse ipotesi, e questo non è privo di una sua suggestione, perché ci lascia pensare che Emmaus rappresenti in realtà ogni luogo: la strada che vi conduce è il cammino di ogni cristiano, anzi, di ogni uomo. Sulle nostre strade Gesù risorto si fa compagno di viaggio, per riaccendere nei nostri cuori il calore della fede e della speranza e spezzare il pane della vita eterna (Papa Benedetto)

Romano Guardini wrote that the Lord “is always close, being at the root of our being. Yet we must experience our relationship with God between the poles of distance and closeness. By closeness we are strengthened, by distance we are put to the test” (Pope Benedict)

Romano Guardini scrive che il Signore “è sempre vicino, essendo alla radice del nostro essere. Tuttavia, dobbiamo sperimentare il nostro rapporto con Dio tra i poli della lontananza e della vicinanza. Dalla vicinanza siamo fortificati, dalla lontananza messi alla prova” (Papa Benedetto)

In recounting the "sign" of bread, the Evangelist emphasizes that Christ, before distributing the food, blessed it with a prayer of thanksgiving (cf. v. 11). The Greek term used is eucharistein and it refers directly to the Last Supper, though, in fact, John refers here not to the institution of the Eucharist but to the washing of the feet. The Eucharist is mentioned here in anticipation of the great symbol of the Bread of Life [Pope Benedict]

Narrando il “segno” dei pani, l’Evangelista sottolinea che Cristo, prima di distribuirli, li benedisse con una preghiera di ringraziamento (cfr v. 11). Il verbo è eucharistein, e rimanda direttamente al racconto dell’Ultima Cena, nel quale, in effetti, Giovanni non riferisce l’istituzione dell’Eucaristia, bensì la lavanda dei piedi. L’Eucaristia è qui come anticipata nel grande segno del pane della vita [Papa Benedetto]

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