Last edited on Wed Feb 6th, 2008 06:41 pm by Dave Armstrong

[Romans 7:]14–25. As can be seen from the use of the present tense, the “I” in vv. 14–25 is no longer Paul before his conversion, but rather after it: and it also stands for all mankind redeemed by Christ’s grace. Here we have a vivid description of the interior struggle which everyone experiences, Christians included. These words are in line with something we are all well aware of: in our bodies there is a “law,” an inclination, which fights against the law of our spirit (cf. v. 23), that is, against the spiritual good which God’s grace causes us to desire. The very expression “the law of sin which dwells in my members” emphasizes how strenuously our senses, appetites and passions try to reject the dictates of the spirit; however, the spirit can gain the upper hand. The Church’s teaching is that Baptism does not take away a person’s inclination to sin (fomes peccati), concupiscence: he or she still experiences a strong desire for earthly or sensual pleasure. “Since it [concupiscence] is left to provide a trial, it has no power to injure those who do not consent and who, by the grace of Christ Jesus, manfully resist” (Council of Trent, De peccato originali, can. 5).

The Jews were able to keep the Law of Moses only through the help of divine grace granted them in anticipation of the merits of Christ. Without grace they were like slaves, “sold under sin” (v. 14). After Christ, a person who rejects the Redemption is in a similar position, for “in the state of corrupt nature man needs grace to heal his nature and enable him to avoid sin entirely. In this present life this healing is brought about in his mind [the spiritual part of man]: the carnal appetite is not completely healed. Hence the Apostle (Rom 7:25) says of the person healed by grace, ‘I serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.’ In this state a person can avoid mortal sin […] but he cannot avoid all venial sin, due to the corruption of his sensual appetite” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, I-II, q. 109, a. 8).

Hence our need for God’s help if we are to persevere in virtue; hence also our need to make a genuine personal effort to be faithful. The St. Pius V Catechism [Catechism of the Council of Trent], when dealing with the fact that even after Baptism man is subject to various disabilities, including concupiscence, explains that God has willed that death and suffering, which originate in sin, remain part of our lot, thereby enabling us to attain mystical and real union with Christ, who chose to undergo suffering and death; and, likewise, we still have concupiscence, and experience bodily weakness, etc. “that in them we may have the seed and material of virtue from which we shall hereafter receive a more abundant harvest of glory and more ample rewards” (II, 2, 48).