Lent 3, Morning after thoughts

Good Morning!

Well my coffee cup is full & I'm ready to share some ruminations about yesterday's text & topic. I guess the biggest thing that's floating around in my mind still is the topic of Justification & its technicalities. I did read something this past week that was interesting. This is from:
http://liturgy.slu.edu/3LentA022408/theword_indepth.html

"In a course of lectures on justification delivered in his Anglican days and reissued many years later after he had become a Roman Catholic, John Henry Newman sought to find a via media between the Reformation and the Council of Trent on the doctrine of justification, a way that would do justice to the legitimate concerns of both sides and yet transcend the antithesis.
The interesting thing for us is that he sought it precisely in this understanding of justification as the gift of the indwelling Spirit.
On the one hand, this avoided the notion suggested by much Reformation theology that justification is no more than the external imputation of righteousness, leaving a person just as much a sinner as before, and, on the other hand, the Tridentine suggestion that justification means what it means etymologically, namely, to make just, implying that the justified person has already become righteous in a moral sense.
The Reformers were right in protesting that the justified person is still a sinner, and the Tridentine doctrine was right in asserting that justification makes a real difference.
The way out of this dilemma is suggested by Rom 5:2: Justification is the gift of the indwelling Spirit, which initiates a transformation into the risen state.
Justification and the gift of the Spirit are the outcome of God’s love. That love is not an abstract idea but something that happened—on the cross.
The love of God in Christ on the cross was pure love, love not caused by the attractiveness of its object: while we were yet sinners and while we were yet helpless, Christ died for us.
Through the cross God accepts sinners, and his acceptance of them is manifested by sending his Spirit to dwell in them and *gradually* transform them, so that eventually they will become in reality what they are in theory, (I would've said what they have been "declared") namely, righteous.

The points mentioned here are interesting, namely, the emphasis on the giving of the Holy Spirit. I think it may also be helpful to look at this matter from the standpoint of CHANGE. What/who's changed as a result of Justification?
1. God's attitude toward the sinner is changed. God looks at the sinner & sees not sin, but rather the righteousness of Christ. This righteousness is not a "work in progress," but rather is PERFECT because it is the righteousness of the only begotten Son of the Father. In that sense, God looks at the sinner & sees a completely finished product.
2. The sinner's heart is changed. It is now the abode of the Holy Spirit. This is the point Newman (& St. Paul) made.

Beyond this is where traditional Catholic & Protestant thought diverge. Protestant thought sees the *result* of this changed heart as the beginning of Sanctification--the process of the Holy Spirit TRULY changing the sinner into what it is that the Father sees--namely, a RIGHTEOUS person.

Heady stuff!

Cheers,

TM